Category Archives: Golden Rule

Sometime on Tuesday, November 8, 1960, a 66-year-old widower and self-described moderate Republican went to his polling place in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to vote for his states junior senator for president. Never the most forthcoming of men, Norman Rockwell hadnt told his family he was backing John F. Kennedy. Hed painted portraits of both candidates for the Saturday Evening Post, and he just didnt like Richard Nixons face.

It was only a short walk down Main Street from the two-story Colonial house supposedly once occupied by Aaron Burr, whose derelict red barn Rockwell had converted into his fastidiously tidy studio. Hed called Stockbridge home since relocating from rural Vermont six years earlier, mainly for proximity to its renowned Austen Riggs psychiatric center. His second wife, Mary, who struggled with alcoholism and depression, had been a chronic patient there.

In those newly cosmopolitan times the Mad Men era, for shorthands sake the Anytown, USA, that Rockwell had depicted on hundreds of Post covers was becoming a curio at best and an object of derision at worst. Nixon still espoused a mealy-mouthed fealty to those pseudo-Rockwellian virtues. By choosing Kennedy instead, Rockwell might as well have been casting a ballot to hasten his own obsolescence. But nobody could disagree that hed had a good run.

Born in 1894 on Manhattans Upper West Side, Rockwell had never shown interest in any other career besides commercial illustration. Before his 16th birthday, he had dropped out of high school to enroll at New Yorks Art Students League. Untempted by the bohemia of Greenwich Village and seemingly indifferent to (or unnerved by) the concept of a love life, he had business cards printed for himself while he was still in his teens.

Most midcentury Americans would have had trouble fathoming the idea that Norman Rockwell had ever been that young or unknown. In the four and a half decades since his Post debut in 1916, his humorous vignettes of awkward situations and glowing ones of social and domestic rituals had defined the nations most idyllic self-image. From Andy Hardy movies to Frank Capras Its a Wonderful Life, Hollywoods version of homey American verities was by and large a facsimile of Rockwells.

But by the time he cast that vote in 1960, his perspective was growing increasingly remote from the bulk of his fellow citizens lived experience in cities and postwar suburbs. The concept of kitsch had begun following Rockwell around in print like one of the lovelorn puppies he would include in a painting whenever he was at a loss for an effect (a habit that he would later mock).

Worse, the Saturday Evening Post wasnt the national arbiter it had been. A few months after JFKs inaugural, the magazine would promise jittery advertisers a drastically modernized look under a new editor-in-chief who promptly recanted the Posts endorsement of Nixon the previous fall. The demotion of Rockwells Main Street America to the Rat Packs Nowheresville wasnt explicit, but everybody got the gist.

Its unlikely he even considered retiring. At ease only when at his easel, he took little interest in hobbies or even in his family. Not the most well-rounded of men, Rockwell, when asked to describe his leisure activities by Edward R. Murrow on CBSs Person to Person in 1959, responded that he couldnt think of any, except the countless hours he spent tearing up diaper cloths for use as paint rags.

In any case, he was obviously too sedate to change his spots, no matter how speedily the country around him was changing. That would have been most peoples guess, at least.

It would have been spectacularly wrong. The tumultuous 60s would convert Rockwell into an overt social liberal and the eras unlikeliest practitioner of polemical art.

Even the Norman Rockwell Museum cant make sense of his late-life political transformation. Amid the familiar Rockwelliana on display there is 1964s The Problem We All Live With which his biographer Deborah Solomon, in her 2013 book, American Mirror, calls the most famous painting of the civil-rights movement as jarring as it must have been in the pages of Look magazine more than 50 years ago. But it was only the first of his 1960s paintings to upend everything Norman Rockwell stood for.

Indeed, one of the minor marvels of the 60s was that the period made Rockwell happier than hed ever been. The hippies he came to dote on had a word for it: liberation.

After Mary died unexpectedly of coronary heart disease in August 1959, her husbands vestigial social life centered on a Stockbridge mens club called the Marching and Chowder Society. Its members met once a week to chew over the news of the day, from the nuclear arms race to the Souths roiling battles over desegregation.

Up until then, the average lamppost had taken a livelier interest in current events than Rockwell did. His only concessions to topical urgency had come between Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Besides proselytizing for democracy with his epic Four Freedoms series (a quartet of paintings depicting freedom of speech and worship as well as freedom from fear and want the last of these featuring his celebrated image of a familys Thanksgiving feast), hed regaled Post readers with covers featuring a regally posed Rosie the Riveter and a youthful soldiers homecoming. But then hed gone back to his familiar tableaux, seemingly unaffected by Elvis Presley, suburbias advent, or the Cold War and certainly not by Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks, or Little Rock.

Rockwell had every reason to feel personally un-implicated in the countrys burgeoning racial strife. Theres no record of him encountering black-white tensions during his youth in New York City and New Rochelle, nor, later on, in relatively isolated (and white) Vermont or Stockbridge. As for his Saturday Evening Post America, it could have been what Ronald Reagan had in mind when he notoriously reminisced about the days when we didnt even know we had a racial problem a we as defining, if far more damning, than the one in The Problem We All Live Withs title.

The Post banned illustrations showing African Americans in anything other than menial roles. Rockwell had generally been docile about that. Very little in his Post work had prepared his audience for how unambiguously and provocatively he declared himself on the subject of desegregation in his Look magazine debut.

At the time, most white Americans still thought of racial injustice as a problem only Southerners wrestled with. The contest between Kennedy and Nixon ran its course without civil rights being much of an issue, with one dramatic exception. In October 1960, a month before the election, Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed after leading an Atlanta sit-in. In a surprise move, JFKs brother Robert F. Kennedy publicly intervened to help secure his release. The Kennedy familys actions while Nixon cautiously kept mum would abruptly change the equation. African American voters significantly bolstered JFKs razor-thin margin of victory.

Rockwells only involvement in the 1960 election, aside from voting, had been his portraits of Kennedy and Nixon. His son Peter (one of the three he had with Mary) remembered Rockwell grousing that the problem with doing Nixon is that if you make him look nice, he doesnt look like Nixon anymore. As the magazines preferred candidate, Nixon got the cover dated closer to Election Day, not that it did him any good.

Never fond of television, Rockwell probably went to bed without watching the evening news on November 14, 1960, just under a week after Kennedys victory. If so, he wouldnt only have missed the sight of a knackered Nixon shaking hands with the new president-elect in Key Biscayne, Florida. Hed also have missed a mob of white New Orleanians howling abuse as they witnessed the unthinkable: a quartet of US marshals escorting a 6-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges as she entered school to attend first grade.

Bridges was one of just four African American first-graders whod been chosen to integrate the citys school system. But at least Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne got to enter McDonogh 19 school as a trio. Bridges, flanked by the marshals, went up the steps of William Frantz Elementary School on her own.

Not that anybody knew her name. To readers and viewers of most news outlets, she was simply the little Negro girl, and so she remained until the 1990s, when the adult Bridges was reunited at a Black History Month event in New Orleans with one of her real-life escorts and the painting.

What drew Rockwell to the subject three years after the fact? His interest may have been sparked by the writings of psychiatrist Robert Coles, whod met with and counseled Bridges and her family. The artist may have read John Steinbecks 1962 bestseller Travels With Charley, whose concluding chapter contains his eyewitness account of the havoc outside the school on a typical day in the autumn of 1960. One passage, in particular, vividly anticipates the central figure in Rockwells painting: a glimpse of the littlest Negro girl you ever saw, dressed in shining starchy white, with new white shoes on feet so little they were almost round. Her face and little legs were very black against the white.

Yet Rockwell unmistakably had Ruby Bridgess ordeal on his mind before either Coles or Steinbeck weighed in. His most ambitious painting of 1961 was The Golden Rule, which featured more than two dozen people of all races and faiths illustrating the caption Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Two of them are African American: a man in a pointedly middle-class white shirt and tie as well as a neatly dressed girl prominently placed in the foreground. In an early version of The Golden Rule, which is the one propped today in the artists studio at the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, the girls hands are simply clasped in prayer. In the final painting, theyre clutching two schoolbooks.

Not many Post subscribers in 1961 were likely to miss the allusion to the child whod gotten so much news coverage the previous autumn. Segregationists certainly didnt; they sent Rockwell the only hate mail hed received in his 45-year career. But his relationship with the Post had been deteriorating in any case. Its editors had concluded that his brand of folksy humanism was pass. They also seemed uninterested, as The Golden Rule hinted, that their former mainstay had a burgeoning interest in more provocative social themes. That summer, the new regime unveiled its plans for a revamped Post, including art work ... considerably more abstract than anything that has appeared in the magazine. Rockwells sardonic response was his very funny January 1962 cover, The Connoisseur, depicting a stocky gent in bankers gray pondering a Jackson Pollock riot of splattered red, yellow, and blue.

His imitation Pollock was expert enough to delight the artist Willem de Kooning. But The Connoisseur proved to be the last of his great Post covers. Just five months after it was published, Rockwell got new marching orders, and they rankled. He was to be confined from then on to producing portraits of statesmen, plus the occasional celebrity.

Terrified of ending his relationship with the Post, he tried to oblige his bosses. But in May 1963, he scrawled a remarkably agonized 3 am lament: All of this debasement, depression, unsatisfaction. Isnt this the answer if necessary, die doing something worthwhile. A worthy end ... not humiliating fear and groveling. Have I got the sustaining courage to cut it through? Cut the knot myself not die groveling.

Four months later, he wrote the Posts latest art director that hed come to the conviction that the work I now want to do no longer fits into the Post scheme.

His major emotional sustenance during this period came from his new wife. Fourteen months after Mary died, after a brief acquaintance, he married Molly Punderson, a 64-year-old schoolteacher who, as biographer Solomon puts it, was not known to have had any male suitors before they wed. But Rockwells marital needs had never been primarily sexual, and he knew what he could count on from her: You will help, be with me, admire me, he addressed Molly in that same insomniac cri de coeur. I have the courage with you.

Rockwells final Post cover, for the memorial issue commemorating John F. Kennedys assassination, that November, was a reprint of the artists 1960 JFK portrait. But by then, hed already signed up with Look. The rival to Henry Luces Life magazine, the more politically adventurous Look had no misgivings about the unlikely image Rockwell proposed as his debut, despite how it diverged from everything he was famous for unless, of course, that was part of its appeal. On October 1, 1963, art director Allen Hurlburt wrote him, As you know, Dan [Mich, Looks editor] and I are very excited about your idea for a painting of the Negro girl and the marshals. ... In checking our production schedules I find that we should have the art work by November 10 to make an early January issue.

Rockwell told Hurlburt hed gotten a head start on the painting, having identified a willing model: I already have the 7 yr old little girl and she is perfect. Her grandmother is sewing the white dress for her. ... Be assured I am very excited about the picture. Excited wasnt a word hed often used about his assignments for the Post.

Rockwells search for the perfect little girl may seem odd, given the common belief that Problem simply replicates a news photograph. But that misconception is an unwitting tribute to how completely the real episode and Rockwells depiction of it have fused in our collective memory. Aside from the basic situation, virtually every detail of the picture is Rockwells invention.

His usual MO was to sketch or paint from photographs of local residents, who would come to his studio and then follow his directions as they struck various poses. Hed employed a photographer named Bill Scovill virtually full-time since 1953, and it was Scovill who likely took the reference photos for The Problem We All Live With.

Only two African American families lived in Stockbridge then. Rockwell was friendly with the patriarch of one of them: Bill Gunn, whod posed for The Golden Rule and also chaired the Berkshire County chapter of the NAACP. Rockwell became a lifetime member in October 1963, around the time he began working on The Problem We All Live With.

Two of Gunns granddaughters were approximately the right age to stand in for Bridges: first cousins named Lynda and Anita Gunn. Lynda ended up doing most of the posing. Anita and other members of the Gunn family, who had been invited to observe the photo sessions, enjoyed the Coca-Colas that Rockwell passed around. For Lynda, the tricky part was balancing herself on two wooden boards front foot tilting upward, back foot tilting down to simulate walking. It was an old device of Rockwells, and he also used it for the separate reference shots of her four adult escorts.

At least two of the burly men who posed for the painting were authentic US marshals sent out from Boston to oblige him. Another was Stockbridge Police Chief William J. Obanhein, who, oddly enough, would later enjoy a peculiarly 60s-ish fame of his own as the Officer Obie of Arlo Guthries 1967 hit song Alices Restaurant.

But well never know which of Bridgess escorts he impersonated. In one of Rockwells boldest breaks with representational convention, the marshals are painted from their shoulders down not just faceless but headless. While that doesnt dehumanize them, exactly if anything, it makes their determined bearing more eloquent nothing could better emphasize Rockwells understanding that the moments emotional truth lay in Ruby Bridgess solitude. Of course they were terribly disappointed that I didnt show their faces, he would explain years later. But if Id shown the four faces, you wouldnt have seen the little girl.

Rockwells depiction of Bridges was another matter. He chose to darken her skin tone, making it darker, in fact, than that of either Lynda or Anita Gunn. Today, such artistic license deliberately darkening a subjects appearance as a way of overemphasizing race and provoking the viewer would be seen as racially insensitive. But he plainly hoped to disconcert Looks readers by making her blackness the pictures central issue. Paradoxically, that also made her unmistakable individuality more arresting.

Except for the somewhat too-vivid yellow of the marshals armbands arguably, the pictures only flaw and the almost bridal whiteness of the little girls dress, which is one of its masterstrokes, the only patch of color thats meant to draw the eye is the stain on the wall behind them, the residue of a flung tomato. (It took me ten tomatoes to look as though it had really splashed, Rockwell later recalled.) But its not as prominent as Problems most shocking ingredient today: the all-caps racial slur scrawled on the wall.

With its decapitated marshals and the diminutive Ruby walking in stark profile, the painting is among Rockwells most stylized. There is even an artificiality to the way the four bodyguards left arms are cocked back so that the viewer can see their badges as well as the court order tucked into the lead marshals side jacket pocket. The artist has pared down the actual event to its essential meaning an atypical treatment for Rockwell, who loved to pack his canvases with incidental detail.

Whats strikingly absent, except by unpleasant implication, is Rockwells most durable theme: community. The mob heckling Ruby Bridges is nowhere to be seen, and only gradually does it sink in that its because were looking at Bridges and her escorts from the mobs point of view. We can only dissociate ourselves from them by refusing complicity.

When the Look issue came out, Rockwell was in Moscow, which would have confirmed white bigots worst suspicions even or especially if theyd known he was participating in a cultural exchange program at the US Information Agencys behest. He didnt return home until early February, entirely unaware of how The Problem We All Live With had been received.

According to Solomon, he was greeted by sacks of disapproving mail from readers that Looks editors had forwarded to him. The negative letters were venomous: Anybody who advocates, aids or abets the vicious crime of racial integration is nothing short of a traitor to the white race, and a traitor to the illustrious white founders of this country, wrote G.L. Le Bon of New Orleans. THE WAR HAS JUST BEGUN!

But there were supportive letters, too. Chester Martin of Chattanooga, Tennessee, wrote, I have never been so deeply moved by any picture. ... Thank you for showing this white Southerner how ridiculous he looks. The truth is pretty hard to take until we get it from a Norman Rockwell. Onetime Negro League third baseman turned real estate broker and occasional poet David J. Malarcher was stirred enough to send Look a poem hed written in honor of the illustration, including these verses: Their hands are tense / Their gait is rare / Their arms are ready for the fray / The little girl is unaware / That she is history today.

Another approving letter came from a self-described former Rockwell debunker whod once scoffed at how maudlin and commercial his work was. Permit me now to choke on my words. ... YOU have just said in one painting what people cannot say in a lifetime. In his thank-you letter, Rockwell modestly explained that I am [sic] just had my seventieth birthday and I am trying to be a bit more adult in my work.

Adult is an interesting choice of words for a man his age. When Mary was alive, Rockwell had plunged into therapy, almost as if he couldnt stand the idea of Mary monopolizing the shrinks attention. He had sessions twice a week with Erik Erikson, the analyst to whom we owe the locution identity crisis. Erikson was famous mainly for his work with troubled children, and the most beloved illustrator in American magazine history occasionally resembled one. The side of Rockwell that had never matured left him uncommonly dependent on validation from others, maybe now more than ever.

As a result, Hurlburts encouragement thrilled him. Besides offering specific recommendations that Rockwell happily accepted it was Hurlburt who suggested the marshals be depicted with their arms back he provided the support and approval Rockwell craved. I dont want to sound slushy or sentimental, he wrote Hurlburt in the spring of 1966, but I cant resist writing you to tell you how much your creative art direction has meant to me. You have given me the opportunity over and over again to paint pictures of contemporary subjects that I am fascinated with.

The most unsparing picture he ever painted was the accompanying illustration for a 1965 Look article called Southern Justice. As unknown today as Problem is famous, Murder in Mississippi was Rockwells depiction of the June 21, 1964, killing of civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney two white New Yorkers and a local African American volunteer by Klansmen and local police. Spooky, harshly lit, and almost barren, its as close as Rockwell ever came to Goyas Los Desastres de la Guerra.

Because the exact circumstances under which the three men died werent known, Rockwell struggled with deciding how to portray their final moments, initially including their killers in the frame before reducing them to looming shadows. What stays constant is his depiction of the victims: one dead, one dying, one grimly preparing to meet his fate.

Sprawled on the ground, Goodman has already been killed. Schwerner is still standing, his head turned in profile to gaze at his executioners. Linking the two white men is Chaney, whos been shot once and is on his knees, clutching Schwerner with both hands for support. Schwerners right hand has pulled him close in an embrace, tugging up Chaneys T-shirt to expose his bare back, Rockwells way of emphasizing both Chaneys race and his vulnerability.

Rockwells unusually detailed notes on the murders are a moving testimony to his determination to do right by the civil rights workers. He remarked on Goodman and Schwerners beatnik sneakers and blue jeans. In one poignant observation, he wrote that they had, all three, had haircuts the day before. The reference photos also emphasize his emotional commitment. His son Jarvis modeled as Schwerner, and Rockwell himself posed for a detail photo of Chaneys bloodied hand gripping Schwerners bicep. Both the hand and the bicep are Rockwells.

It could be the most strangely haunting picture of Norman Rockwell anybody ever took. Because his facial expression doesnt matter, hes gazing placidly at the camera, wearing a slight smile. Yet, consciously or not, by impersonating Schwerner and Chaney simultaneously, hes claiming an identification with both victims one black, one white.

I tried in a big way to make an angry painting, he wrote to Hurlburt in May 1965. If I just had a bit of Ben Shahn in me it would have helped. Its an interesting wish, since the very left-wing Shahns Depression-era paintings had derived their force from semi-grotesque distortions that were utterly at odds with Rockwells innate naturalism. As it happened, Hurlburt apparently agreed; Look opted to print not Rockwells final version of the scene but one of his rawer preliminary studies. Only 18 months into their association, this was the acid test of Rockwells trust in his new patrons. Initially disgruntled, he ended up conceding that All the anger that was in the sketch had gone out of the finished painting.

Look would never print a Rockwell picture that angry again.

During the next five years, Rockwells paintings on contemporary subjects for Look were hardly confined to indictments. Hed simply gotten more selective in the aspects of modern America he found worth celebrating. He painted more than one picture championing the Peace Corps: I love ... the ideals and the performances of these young people, he told Hurlburt. He boosted Lyndon Johnsons war on poverty. Maybe most endearingly, he was besotted with NASA, producing gadget-happy depictions of the space program.

Even the third and last of his major civil rights paintings for Look struck a relatively hopeful note, amounting to a reconciliation of the Norman Rockwell of yore with his new focus on topicality. New Kids in the Neighborhood featured a pair of black children and a trio of white ones sizing each other up as a moving van is unloaded behind them. The benign mood is undercut only by a detail that isnt easy to spot even face-to-face with the original and that must have been indiscernible in Looks reduced reproduction: a white woman peering from a nearby window, her expression conveying worry, verging on hostility.

Rockwell hardly wanted New Kids in the Neighborhood to be his last word on the subject. But he and Look were unable to agree on the much grimmer painting he proposed next. Existing in multiple versions, none of which seems to be fully finished, Blood Brothers depicts two men one black, one white dying side by side in a pool of their intermingled blood. The point, of course, is that you cant tell whose blood is whose.

Initially, Rockwell wanted to set Blood Brothers in the ghetto, in the parlance of the era. But Look urged him to transpose the scene to Vietnam, which would obviously have implied a different set of pieties. Rockwell gave the revision a dutiful try. By late 1968, however, he was grumbling, I think I want to go back to the ghetto.

Either because of that impasse or some other dispute, he and Hurlburt eventually abandoned the idea. But if the combat zone version of Blood Brothers had seen print, it would have been Rockwells only painting for Look to deal with the Vietnam War head-on. He may have balked because the concept left his personal position on the war unstated, and he and his wife, Molly, were both staunch in their opposition to it.

As citizens, he and Molly werent shy about letting Lyndon Johnson know where they stood. An uncooperative sitter when Rockwell had painted the new president in 1964, LBJ likely grew weary of the stream of telegrams from the couple demanding negotiations instead of bombing. But a Rockwell artwork directly attacking the war would have been too polarizing for Looks editors, and it appears he never proposed one.

What he could do was agree to paint philosopher and peace activist Bertrand Russells portrait for the very left-leaning Ramparts in 1967. Almost a quarter-century after tackling the Four Freedoms for the Pentagons Office of War Information, he firmly refused a Marine Corps request to produce a propaganda poster. I was supposed to do a portrait of a soldier in Vietnam kneeling over to help a wounded villager and love shining in their eyes, Rockwell told Womens Wear Daily in 1968. I thought about it a lot, and my wife said, You cant do that and you know you cant. [So] Im doing John Glenn instead. The first American astronaut to orbit Earth was the kind of Marine Rockwell had no problem lionizing.

By the late 60s, he often heard from older fans who wondered why he couldnt go on giving them those sweet old pictures like you used to do. But Rockwell was unmoved. You cant make the good old days come back just by painting pictures of them, he snorted. That kind of stuff is dead now and I think its about time, he told another interviewer.

After a lifetime of diffidence, Rockwells interviews from the end of the decade are remarkably energetic and cocky, militant, even. Without disavowing his earlier work I couldnt have had my tongue in my cheek for 50 years he never stopped insisting that red-cheeked little boys and mongrel dogs no longer typified America. Now its all sex or race troubles, he remarked, homosexuality or college riots, and I think its a great challenge. Even more startlingly, he declared in that pivotal year of protest, 1968, that he couldnt paint the Four Freedoms now. I just dont believe in it.

A different kind of freedom entranced him instead. Rockwell was enamored of the counterculture, not least for its visual clat. I think the hippies and the Yippies are wonderful, he told the International Herald-Tribune. I think of everybody as models, and Im so goddamned sick of business suits with conventional haircuts, like I have. In 1968, Rockwell pointedly included a hippie couple he in a fringed jacket, she with a flower in her hair among the concerned citizens in The Right to Know, his last political painting, which shows a multicultural cross-section of Americans staring accusingly at an empty leather chair. (The captions mention of wars we do not want finally made his position on Vietnam explicit.) Touchingly, among the faces all dramatically underlit is the artist himself, his hand tenderly resting on the young womans arm.

Rockwell desperately wanted to paint beat poet Allen Ginsberg as well as Bob Dylan and his family. While nothing came of either project, Rockwell did paint two of Dylans onetime sidemen when he agreed to do the cover art for guitarist Mike Bloomfield and organist Al Koopers album The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. Its one of his most carefree paintings, showing Bloomfield smoldering through ice-blue irises and looking more sensual than any other man Rockwell ever painted, as Vanity Fairs David Kamp noted in a 2010 essay.

Nonetheless, Look expected Rockwell to do his due diligence in election years, even if his enthusiasms lay elsewhere. Tasked with painting the 1968 presidential candidates Gene McCarthy, Bobby Kennedy, and Hubert Humphrey among the Democrats; Nixon and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller among the Republicans he chose to render all of them with two faces: the Rockwellized version of Greek masks of comedy and tragedy. (He wanted to paint independent segregationist candidate George Wallace in front of a funereally black background, but Look vetoed that one.)

As had been the case in 1960, the eventual Republican nominee the hardest man I had to paint, ever was a challenge. [Nixons] got a mean eye, he said. And then he has these big chestnuts in his jowls. That August, with the Republican convention done and the Democrats debacle in Chicago looming, Rockwell wrote to Hurlburt, I was delighted to have you call me yesterday and tell me that I dont have to paint Mr. Nixon again.

But he did. Once Nixon won, Rockwell had to paint him as Mr. President. Its now the only Rockwell painting in the National Portrait Gallery, and this time around, he managed what hed once said was impossible. His subject looks like a nice man who is, nonetheless, unmistakably Richard Nixon. At any rate, Rockwell as no one else did captured Nixons eternal, tentative, thwarted wish to be the good-hearted person he wasnt, which is the paintings peculiar beauty.

Despite his aversion to the new president as a subject for portraiture, Rockwell had voted for him this time around. Whatever prompted his choice loss of heart, alienation from the Democratic Partys 1968 shambles, or credulous hope that Nixon might actually end the war in Vietnam it was a wan coda to the most dramatic and exhilarated (indeed, the only) self-reinvention of his long career.

Largely sidelined after 1972 as he developed dementia, eventually dying in 1978 at age 84, Rockwell never painted another significant picture again.

Tom Carson is a National Magazine Award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, GQ, the New York Times, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and other publications.

Excerpt from:

The Problem We All Live With and the political awakening of Norman Rockwell - Vox.com

Not well, eaten too fast, or consumed the wrong thing? There are plenty of reasons why a pet might vomit inside your home, and its the way of the world that itll be on your carpet rather than the hard flooring it would be simpler to clean up.

Its not one of lifes most pleasant tasks, but cleaning cat or dog sick off the carpet can be hassle-free. Find out how below and don't miss more tips on how to clean a carpet in our guide.

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, 16...

Mystic Moments Citric Acid,...

Minky M Cloth Anti-Bacterial...

Good news! You've got much of the cleaning kit in your cupboard already (and if not, a dash to the shops will kit you out it's not complicated).

1. Scrape up as much of the vomit as you can. A bit gross, but using a plastic kitchen spatula and piling it into a pile of toilet roll will work and you can flush it down the loo (and put the spatula in the dishwasher).

2. The golden rule? Dont rub at whats there as youll push it into the carpet.

3. Then sprinkle baking soda on to any stain thats left, leave for 10 minutes and vacuum.

4. Next, mix a good squirt of washing-up liquid, a tablespoon of white vinegar and around half a litre of warm water, and use the solution to blot and lift the stain with a clean cloth.

5. Apply cold water on a second white cloth to rinse, and leave to dry.

6. Repeat steps three to five if necessary.

Read the rest here:

Pet sick on the carpet? This buy WORKS, plus it's cheap (and you've already got it) - Real Homes

Maurie Backman, The Motley Fool Published 7:00 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2020

Most Americans dread tax season. It can be costly, confusing and complicated. But theres some good news: there are fewer changes this time around. USA TODAY

Credit cards may be a helpful tool for consumers, but they should be used for the convenience and benefits they offer.

A large number of families fall back on credit cards out of necessity, and new data shows that medical costs are largely to blame.

About 69% of families with children say they make sacrifices to keep up with their medical expenses, according to anAflac survey. Thirty-seven percentof families rely on credit cards to pay their billsand deal with the aftermath.

Retirement: Here are 5 things you can do right now to make it easier

Social Security: Here's the overlooked benefit hardly anyone knows about

Credit cards are a great way to earn rewards for the things you buy, but when you fail to pay them off, you run into trouble.

Any time you carry a credit card balance, you automatically sign up to pay interest expensive interest on the things you charged. Too much credit card debt can negatively affect your credit score by driving your credit utilization into unfavorable territory. Utilization speaks to the amount of available credit you use at once, and a ratio above 30% is harmful to your score.

If you're forced to rely on credit cards to pay your bills and you rack up a high enough balance to exceed that 30% threshold, your credit score is likely to suffer, making it more difficult for you to borrow money the next time you need to.

If health care expenses drive you to have an unhealthy relationship with your credit cards, your best bet is to rethink your budget and build some emergency savings. That way, you'll have cash reserves to tap when your medical bills come in higher than expected.

Ideally, your emergency fund should have enough money in it to cover three to six months of essential bills, but if you can't hit that target, save as much as you can. A good bet is to sock away enough cash to cover your annual deductible, since you'll need to pay it before your insurer picks up the tab for your health care services.

Factor health care into your budget in a realistic fashion. Take a look at what your insurance premiums, deductiblesand co-pays cost, and figure out how much you should reasonably expect to spend each month. Account for those one-off situations that may pop up on occasion, such as a hospital visit. You dont need to plan on one every month, but it wouldnt hurt to budget for one visit a year. Aflac reportedthat 37% of families who went to the hospital within the past two years had to pay $500 or more out of pocket. Twenty-three percentspent $1,000 or more, so if your costs are similar, divvy that figure up among 12 months, so you set money aside as you need to.

Finally, take advantage of a health savings account, if you're eligible for one. To contribute to one of these accounts, you must be enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan, defined as an individual deductible of $1,400 or more, or a family-level deductible of $2,800 or more. The funds you allocate to a health savings account go in tax-free, which means you reap instant savings, lowering your financial burden on a whole and making it easier to keep up with your health care spending.

Medical bills are often unavoidable, and they can wreck your finances if you're not careful. If health care expenses drive you to rely on credit cards to an unhealthy degree, it's time to come up with a better plan before you wind up in a world of debt with no escape in sight.

The Motley Fool owns and recommends MasterCard and Visaand recommends American Express. Were firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approvedor endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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More than a third of families rely on credit cards, survey says. Here's why you need to be careful - USA TODAY

After being quiet for most of the day, the Vegas Golden Knights sprung into life in the final minutes of the Deadline to send seismic waves throughout the NHL.

In the market for a puck-moving defenseman, the Knights decided to head down a different path in order to bolster their roster.

Reading and analysing the market well, the front office opted to pull the trigger on a stunning trade for elite goalie Robin Lehner.

The Golden Knights sent a package containing Malcolm Subban, prospect defenseman Slava Demin and a 2020 Second-Round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Lehner.

It was a three-team trade with Vegas also getting back forward Martins Dzierkals, in addition to sending a 2020 Fifth-Round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for retaining 44 percent of Lehners $5 million cap hit, with the Blackhawks also retaining salary.

No one saw this kind of move coming and the aftermath is clear; the Golden Knights now have one of the best goaltending tandems in the entire National Hockey League.

Lehner is a clear upgrade on Subban and, given some of his stats over the last couple of years, you can make a case for Lehner being one of the elite goalies in the NHL.

After all, he was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy last year after helping to backstop the New York Islanders to the Second Round of the postseason with a 25-13-5 record, a 2.13 Goals Against Average and a .930 Save Percentage.

With his stock never higher, Lehner signed for the Chicago Blackhawks in the off-season on a one-year, $5 million deal.

He posted a 16-10-5 record with a 3.01 Goals Against Average and a .918 Save Percentage for the Hawks, and he emerged as the better goalie in Chicago over Corey Crawford despite being on a bad team.

And, despite allowing 32 goals in his last nine starts, Lehner ranks 11th in the NHL this year in Save Percentage (.918) and 13th when it comes to goals saved above average (10.1).

In other words, Lehner has been more productive than Fleury this year and will be able to carry this team on his back if needed.

While Fleury will still be the main man going forward, the Golden Knights now have the opportunity to rest their future Hall of Famer down the stretch should they see fit, given that they now have a high-caliber backup in place.

Plus, like the Boston Bruins last year, the Knights will now have the luxury of riding two elite goalies throughout the postseason and, as Ive said before, you dont win championships without great goaltending.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 27: (L-R) Dylan Strome #17 and Jonathan Toews #19 of the Chicago Blackhawks congratulate Robin Lehner #40 after a win against the New York Islanders at the United Center on December 27, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. The Blackhawks defeated the Islanders 5-2. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

But, this move was somewhat a removal from the norm for the Vegas Golden Knights who dont usually touch rentals.

They are famous for steering clear from expiring contracts, as seen last year when they quickly locked pending UFA Mark Stone down to a long-term deal after trading for the two-way forward from the Ottawa Senators.

The Knights also did the same with Max Pacioretty, only trading for the forward from the Montreal Canadiens once they knew that an extension was possible.

However, in this instance, the Golden Knights have broken their own golden rule and wont be signing Robin Lehner to an extension.

General Manager Kelly McCrimmon seems content with waiting until the summer to hold talks with Lehner over a new deal, as backed up by the below quote he gave to nhl.com/goldenknights:

It is a risk, of course, given that Lehner could walk as a UFA in the off-season, while there is no guarantee that the goalie will agree to terms on a new deal in Vegas anyway.

After all, Fleury has two-years remaining on his current deal which carries an Average Annual Value of $7,000,000.

With Lehner likely to want significantly more than the $5 million he signed for in Chicago in the summer, that is a lot of cash to stump up for two goalies.

So, it is highly possible that we could be about to witness the first true rental in the short history of the Vegas Golden Knights.

And the fact that GM Kelly McCrimmon was willing to take that sizeable risk highlights how desperate this organization is to win a championship.

They clearly feel they have all the pieces to make a real run this year, hence the blockbuster trade to significantly bolster their goaltending.

As already mentioned, Lehner is a clear upgrade on Malcolm Subban who was 9-7-3 this year with an average 3.18 Goals Against Average and an even worse .890 Save Percentage.

In other words, Subban clearly wasnt getting the job done and, as a result, the Knights pulled the plug and instead added a guy who can help them to win now.

Lehner can split the load down the stretch with Fleury, meaning that both goalies will be fresh and raring to go for the gruelling playoff schedule.

Then, if needed, Lehner can step up in the postseason or fill the void should anything happen to Fleury.

Make no mistake about it, the Golden Knights saw an opportunity present itself in Lehner and they grabbed it with both hands.

They have ignored their own advice by going down the rental road, but it will hardly matter if this franchise goes all the way and wins a Stanley Cup in the summer.

Thats why the risky move to trade for Robin Lehner without the guarantee of an extension is the clearest sign yet that the Vegas Golden Knights only have one interest this year.

And thats winning.

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Vegas Golden Knights: Lehner trade highlights the will to win this year - vegashockeyknight.com

The stock markets are finally reacting to the coronavirus threat this week, with major indexes turning negative. With markets resembling the onset of the financial crisis of a decade ago, investors are looking at a potential threat to the global economy a true black swan event, if the coronavirus outbreak spills over into a pandemic.

With a downturn comes value opportunities, though, and with the markets taking a hit, there are bargains galore at the moment. But investors should refrain from buying stocks simply because theyre cheap; some homework still needs to be done. As Warren Buffett prescribes, investors should seek long-term value creation and understand the businesses that they are buying a stake in.

Three excellent choices for the risk-averse Canadian exist in Fortis (TSX:FTS)(NYSE:FTS), Northland Power (TSX:NPI), and Manulife Financial (TSX:MFC)(NYSE:MFC). Covering utilities, green power, and insurance, all three stocks are essential buy-and-hold choices for the extreme long-range investor looking for assets that will not only survive a prolonged downturn but will also provide regular, dependable income.

Fortis represents the best of Canadian utilities, and the thesis for holding it during a market crash is clear: all households and businesses need power. Meanwhile, Northland Power satisfies a strategy that involves stripping out fossil fuels from a portfolio and replacing them with assets that tap into the green economy a global trend that will become extremely important, as the world turns away from hydrocarbons.

Manulife, as the countrys most popular insurer, is also a recession buster. No matter what the economy does, no matter how badly impacted the stock markets, people need insurance. Manulife is a market leader in this area, and, as such, its stock supports a wide-moat strategy built around only the most stable dividend-paying companies. The stock is on sale (along with the rest of the TSX), down 16% this week.

Paying a 4.8% dividend yield, Manulife is a fairly rich stock and definitely worth packing in a TFSA or other long-term savings account. With its 3.8% yield, Northland Power is another rewarding stock to buy once and forget about. Its wind power operations are particularly interesting and bring strong geographical diversification to the energy production segment of a portfolio.

With its 3.3% dividend yield and exemplary track record of payments, Fortis is as strong as its name suggests. One of the few stocks on the TSX thats been only negligibly impacted by the sell-off this week, Fortis is down just 2% on average over the last five days. Its 36-month beta of just 0.12 further indicates its extreme resilience to market turbulence, making for a reassuring stock to pack in a portfolio.

Stocks fell into a correction Thursday, with markets in their worst condition since the 2008 financial crisis. But this doesnt mean that investors should stop buying. The golden rule is to know what you hold and carry on holding. However, contrarians and strict value investors alike looking for the best low-risk, high-quality stocks have ample opportunity to buy knocked-down shares right now.

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But China has been less rigorous about following the golden rule of fighting pandemics transparency. In the early days of the outbreak, internet users in the country appeared unable to find advice on what precautions they should take, and analysts in Hong Kong claimed links to foreign articles including estimates and the location of new cases were blocked. Two citizen journalists who posted videos about the outbreak went missing.

Other countries including Italy, focus of the largest outbreak in Europe, and South Korea, with the largest number of cases outside China, have also moved to lock down affected cities and restrict the movement of the population.

But in Iran, while schools, universities and some religious seminaries have been shut in response to an outbreak in Qom, south of Tehran, senior clerics rejected a proposal to close its holy shrine, which draws visitors from across the world, claiming that linking the virus with the city was part of a US plot to undermine the religious institution.

Whether efforts to contain COVID-19 prove sufficient is looking increasingly precarious. They may only have bought a breathing space as the outbreak evolves into a global pandemic.

If that is what we face, it will be a major challenge for our world. An effective response will require the involvement of all peoples, the contribution of all sciences, the engagement of all employers and employees, and the collective capacities of businesses.

As David Nabarro, WHO special envoy, says, ensuring populations have access to accurate information they can rely on is paramount. With trust in politicians in short supply, it is to senior scientists and clinicians who can speak with authority that we must turn.

As the focus shifts from containment keeping them from infecting us to mitigation keeping us from infecting each other (for example, by cancelling mass events) transparency, openness and collaboration will be essential.

Every citizen may be at risk and every citizen involved in the response. Doing it well, as a truly global community, can only happen if there is full and generous collaboration among all local and national governments, in ways that explicitly avoid attempts to gain political advantage.

We have learned that we do best if we are willing to share what we know (and do not know), and do all we can to ensure that no person, no community and no nation is left behind.

Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham is a surgeon and director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. He was a Labour health minister from 2007-9.

Excerpt from:

Only global cooperation will stem the spread of coronavirus - Telegraph.co.uk

Last year Oklahoma Heart Hospital switched up its vendor for appointment scheduling to great affect. As HIMSS Media reported at the time, switching to Relatient took the hospitals no-show rate down from around 6.5% to 5.1% and saved the hospital nearly a million dollars on an annual basis.

Jonathan Minson, lead software architect at OHH will present at HIMSS20 last month along with Relatient Chief Technology Officer Kevin Montgomery. Together, the two will speak about some lessons learned from that implementation.

Relatients mobile-first approach to appointment reminders, which includes text messages, phone calls, and web forms, offered OHH improvements in interoperability, transparency, and patient engagement without sacrificing privacy or security.

Minson said that as a software developer working in the healthcare space, hes used to working with vendors that are highly siloed compared to vendors in other industries.

But Relatient was not that way, he said. From day one we told them we needed an API so we could get your data and work it into our clinician workflow seamlessly and they were totally onboard. And so having that data transparency, they are able to offer the same type of technical capabilities that every other software partner outside of health care is offering these days, that was the big difference for us. And because of that, really what drove our declining no-show rate was data transparency."

Additionally, the company had a fresh approach to patient engagement which also presented a contrast to other companies hes worked with.

Their idea is, well, let's engage people as a health care institution the way that people engage each other, he said. We'll have higher adoption. And you know that it's absolutely the case that we've seen, as opposed to some other messaging tools we've used, which would send an e-mail to the patient saying go log in to the other website with credentials you may not even remember to see this important thing we need to tell you.

Minson says he and Montgomery plan to sum up these and other insights into what theyre calling the digital golden rule.

We need to treat our patients and business partners in the same way that we treat people and business partners outside of the healthcare space, he said.

That rule extends to how health systems think about privacy and security as well, MInson added, where the lesson we can learn from other industries is that data privacy is a manageable problem and shouldnt stand in the way of innovation.

Yes, we need to treat our patients' data with the utmost sanctity, I 100% believe in that, he said. But, you know, there are other industries that have equivalent if not more stringent privacy concerns like banking and people dealing with national defense issues.And I've worked with various people in those industries and they have made strides way beyond what we're making in health care. So this can be done. Instead of using thatas a reason not to innovate, use that as a launching point, to say, all right, we have to accept this world of HIPAA and privacy and the sanctity of patient data. Just don't let that stifle our growth.

Minson and Montgomery will be presenting "Achieving Patient Engagement in a Mobile-First Market" at HIMSS20. It is scheduled for 1:00-2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 12 at the Orange Country Convention Center in room W303A.

Excerpt from:

Oklahoma Heart Hospital IT lead: Follow the 'digital golden rule' to improve outcomes, engagement - MobiHealthNews

For decades, Bill and Dawn Oswalt have been part of the fabric of Jaffrey, with Bill working his way from beat cop to police chief, and Dawn presiding over the tax collection office.

The couple plan to retire at the same time, with a retirement and thank-you party scheduled for both on Friday.

I will just miss the townspeople, Dawn said.Even though well still be here, itll be in a different light. I will miss the people.

I just hope weve been good for the town, Bill said.

Their expertise and long service will be missed.

Between the two of them, they have 56 years of service to the town. I thank them for their service. Theyre outstanding individuals and the town is lucky to have had them as long as we have, said Selectmen Frank Sterling, who was on the Select Board when Dawn and Bill were originally hired.

Sterling said Dawn stepped into her position when the previous tax collector resigned, and was left with the job of straightening out the accounts.

It was quite a feat, but she accomplished it, and since, has kept things perfect, he said.

And Sterling credits Bill Oswalts leadership in keeping the police department together and focused, and retaining officers.

Thats because of his leadership. Hes been terrific in that role, Sterling said.

Other police officers also offered praise for Bill Oswaltsleadership in the department.

I've known Bill for many years as a law enforcement officer, and we've worked together from time to time. He's an extraordinary police chief and the residents of Jaffrey have been served well by him, Peterborough Police Chief Scott Guinard said. And he'll be sorely missed by law enforcement and the residents as well. I wish him all the best in his retirement.

Bill Oswalt grew up in central Iowa, in a small farming community. Dawn Oswalt is originally from Jaffrey. The two first met after entering the Navy in the mid-1970s at a stateside base in Maine. Both radio operators, they got to know each other through the job, and came to Jaffrey in 1979 to wed.

After six years in Iowa, working Bill Oswalts family farm, the couple came back to Jaffrey to settle for good in 1987.

With three young children to support, Dawn said she was looking for a job that would allow her to still be there for her family. Thats when her father pointed her to an advertisement in the paper, looking for a new tax collector in Jaffrey. Dawn, who had experience working in a bank, and loves math and numbers, said she tossed her hat in the ring. She got a call while she and her husband were on vacation in Iowa.

They said, You got the job, and How soon can you be back? she said.

Bill Oswaltdidnt join the police force until a few years later.

It had never been on my radar, he said, of a career in law enforcement.

He came to the job in a round-about way, he said, because of his experience in another town emergency service: The Fire Department. Dawns father was a member, and convinced him to join up. He got to see law enforcement in work during his initial years on the department, and the then-police chief asked him if he might be interested in a part-time position, which is how he started in the department. He eventually became a full-time officer in 1994 but he continued on in the fire department as well.

I kept the red lights in my personal vehicle, and when I wasnt on duty, Id show up as a firefighter, he said. And when I was on duty, I was an officer who knew how to prime a fire hydrant.

At their heart, both jobs were about interacting with people, Bill said.

We like totreat the people wedeal with with respect, kindness and dignity. Follow the Golden Rule, Bill said.

Listening is a huge skill, Dawn agreed.

The two will be retiring. Though they plan to continue living in Jaffrey, and continue running their pick-your-own blueberry operation on their property, they will be doing more traveling, particularly to visit Bills family still in Iowa, and their now-adult children and three grandchildren.

They know theyre leaving their departments in capable hands. Chelsie Snow is slated to step into the position of tax collector, and though no official announcement has been made about Bill Oswaltsreplacement in the police force, he said, the department has excellent leadership in his second-in-command, Lt. ToddMuilenberg, who has prior experience as a police chief.

A farewell party is planned for the Oswalts onFriday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jaffrey Fire Station.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. Shes on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.

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After three decades of service, Jaffrey's police chief and tax collector say it's time to retire - Monadnock Ledger Transcript

No one particularly enjoys feedback. Many managers feel uncomfortable giving it, either because of the employees reaction or because they simply struggle to translate their feedback into words. Equally, employees can fear to be on the receiving end of feedback, because they are concerned they wont be able to follow through on recommended improvements.

Halfof all managers dont think their team is comfortable receiving feedback and coaching. This is problematic for organisations and could explain whyover halfof employees only receive feedback from their manager a few times a year. Even for those who do receive regular feedback,only 23%feel its meaningful.

Ongoing, continuous feedback has beenprovento increase performance and motivation, while a lack of feedback stunts employee engagement and career growth, as well as increasing turnover and operational expenses.

HR leaders looking to improve their feedback processes should remind employees and managers of that ancient golden rule: treat others as you want to be treated.

Giving the right type of feedback is important it should incorporate both positive feedback for achievements and areas of improvement. Good feedback demonstrates to employees that their manager is investing in them and focusing on areas that will accelerate their career. If you can coach your managers to give the right type of feedback, your employees will likely respond well to it.

Research has shown57%of employees prefer corrective feedback to straight praise, and 92% of employees believe this type of feedback improves performance.

That said, there are many ways for feedback to go wrong; focusing solely on the positive, or just the negative or simply neutral feedback thats not at all helpful. Each of these methods misleads your staff. Employees who receive only positive feedback are never told how to improve and therefore cant be expected to reach their full potential.

Those who receive only negative feedback feel overlooked and burnt out from the lack of recognition. People who receive neutral feedback risk growing disengaged.

Feedback can be hard to process because it forces us to come to terms with two conflicting facets of human nature: the need to learn and grow and the drive to be accepted, respected, and loved the way we already are. Its therefore important to ensure employees learn how to receive feedback. While this may seem obvious, many employees either find feedback a tedious part of their job that they must endure, or they dont yet understand how to use it for their own growth.

When feedback is delivered promptly, the context is still fresh in our minds, so it is more relatable and valuable. We are better able to understand why we deserve the praise or constructive feedback we are receiving and can react to it with more clarity. Conversely, when feedback is given months later, the details of tasks are long gone, and any negative feedback will more likely be perceived as a personal attack.

When a new manager-employee relationship begins, managers should learn about the employees feedback tendencies and preferences. This will allow them to develop personalised feedback early on, preventing fraught situations down the line.

For those employees who push back, managers can then coach them on how their resistance impacts themselves, their colleagues and the business overall. Asking employees for their thoughts on the entire process will ensure their communication styles are understood and that they feel part of the process. This will also help managers provide more accurate feedback that aligns with employees individual goals.

Ongoing, frequent feedback is closely tied to progress.89%of HR professionals agree that employee performance will increase with more timely feedback and coaching from managers.Without continuous conversations and feedback, its tough to gauge our progress. With feedback, we understand how far weve gone and where we need to get to. Annual feedback loops turn far too slowly, these need to be much more frequent for employees and managers to give and receive the feedback they both deserve.

The ultimate goal when it comes to feedback is to make it as beneficial to employees and management as possible, and therefore as successful as possible. Ensuring managers treat their employees as they would want to be treated in that situation makes this possible. Giving the right type of feedback, at the right time, as part of a continuous process is what every employee should expect, and every organisation should provide.

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How to give employee feedback calmly and effectively - Real Business

Mansfield News Journal Published 5:13 a.m. ET Feb. 23, 2020

WMAN used to be my favorite radio station of choice. However, no more. Why, you may ask?

As a local radio station, I feel they have an obligation to the citizens of this community to announce on their station the school, church and work closings and delays due to inclement weather and the like, as a safety factor. Instead, we are told on the radio to check their website for information regarding these closings. Well, guess what? Not everyone has access to the website, myself included.

When I called the radio station recently regarding this, I was told, "Sorry, it's company policy." Really?

Are the program sponsors aware of this and do they, likewise, concur with this policy?

Since getting rid of the good announcers like Greg Hindel, Tommy Barnes and Rusty Cates who knew how to interact with their radio audience, discussing issues of local interest andinterviewing guests regarding current and political events it seems the quality of programming has done downhill.

Incidentally, TV Station WMFD, Channel 15 does carry closings, delays, etc., on their channel, but then, not everyone watches TV either.

Betty Schartl, Mansfield

Become a Republican. Why? Because you can say or do whatever you want and they will protect you.

Example: You can be a bully. Intimidate people such as mocking or making fun of challenged people. You can lie andnot pay or declare your income tax. You don't have to respect or honor the U.S. Constitution.

Don't worry, if you have to go to trial, they will block the witness so, don't worry, there won't be any evidence to convict you.

More: Police: Clevenger's estranged husband admits he stabbed her to death

More: Kuehnle placed on paid leave, contract not renewed

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If there is a whistleblower, no problem. They will make them out to be the bad person.

How about this for a campaign slogan: Make America Nice Again or Make America Honest Again.

That's all I have to say about that.

Paul Williams, Ontario

I would like to thank Rudy Knapp, retired trustee, for appointing me chief zoning inspector. Since 1986 it has been a pleasure to serve the citizens of Washington Township. I have always used the Golden Rule to operate the zoning office.

It has been an honor to work with the zoning board and zoning board of appeals. My most memorable experience was to guide the ad hoc committee and zoning boards in a complete revision of the zoning resolution in 1997.

On Jan. 31, I retired asthe longest serving chief zoning inspector, with a total of 54 years in public service.

John K. Hurlow, Mansfield

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Letters to the editor: Mansfielder disappointed with radio station's policy - Mansfield News Journal