New Friendship

As a result of "matchmaking" by my cousin, Jim Dale, Charles Harlow III (AKA III) and I have begun a new Internet friendship. Jim, a really great guy, is one of he most conservative persons I know. Jim put III and me together because Jim considers us both "liberal", a label that I choose to decline. I keep telling people that I am so committed to fundamental religious and Constitutional principles that I only appear liberal. I prefer the term, "progressively fundamental".

I anticipate that III will soon join me in blogging. In the interim, III sent me the following message via E-mail and has given me permission to copy most of what he said into this blog:

I, too, am anything but doctrinaire in my positions. I am registered as "unaffiliated" here in Utah. I have voted for both Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Bob Bennett (R-UT) in the past, as well as Mike Leavitt when he was the Republican governor. Both he and our current governor, Jon Huntsman Jr., are moderate Republicans and the Democrats running against them were no great shakes. I voted for Ross Perot in '92 and Bill Clinton in '96.

I was a corrections officer at the Utah state prison for 22 years, retiring as a sergeant. At the same time I was, and still am, a member of the ACLU. My activities while in college preclude me running for public office, as I was either a member of or associated with SNCC, SDS, and the National Student Union. My first civil rights protest was in Baltimore in 1960 or '61. I was active in "Mississippi Summer" and spent time in Birmingham, Alabama as well. I attended the "Bring the Troops Home Now" march in Washington D.C. in November, 1968, as well as anti-war rallies in Carlinville, IL in October of that year and in Springfield, IL in December '68. I was a marshal at the latter one, trying to keep the peace between the bystanders and the marchers. While taking part in all those activities, from 1967-70, I was also either treasurer or vice-president of the Blackburn College Young Republicans Club. I met Phyllis Schlafly (sic), Everett McKinley Dirksen, and Senator Ralph Tyler Smith (R-IL) during those times. And I also was instrumental in having members of the Black Liberation Party from St. Louis, MO, come to speak at the college in 1968. I was in Chicago for the the 1968 Democratic Convention, but not as a delegate. However, I did have press credentials for both the Carlinville Democrat, a Republican paper, and the Macoupin County Enquirer, the Democratic paper. My folks lived about 35 miles from Chicago at the time, so I stayed with them. Of course my mother, being the staunch conservative she was, was appalled by both my behavior and what happened outside the convention.

I subscribe to Time, Newsweek, Harper's Magazine, the Atlantic, and The Nation. I read The Deseret News, a local conservative paper, daily, and the Salt Lake Tribune, what passes for a liberal paper here in Utah, a couple of times a week. I usually watch "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" week nights. And of course, I always try to catch "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central. I also get emails and the magazines from both AARP and AAA. Other than Readers Digest, my other subscription is from International Wolf Center in Ely, MN. I get a lot of my news off the internet from numerous sites. I've tried to watch Bill O'Rielly and Hannity and Colmbs, but they raise my blood pressure too high. I do watch a little CNN now and again, as well as C-Span.

I do understand where you are coming from on Speaker Pelosi, but was Newt Gringrich or Tom DeLay any better?
While there has always been partisanship in Congress, with the advent of Newt and Company it quickly got way out of hand. I'm hoping to see, if not a return to "the good ol' days", at least a mellowing of the divisiveness that has plagued the politics of the country since '94, if not before.

I'm the product of varied background. I was born in Massachusetts, and have lived in Ohio (four different times and towns), New York, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Arizona, and Utah. I managed to hit 14 schools before graduating from high school in 1963. And I attended Northern Illinois University, Mayfield Junior College, Blackburn College, and Syracuse University at one time or another. But despite all those bastions of higher learning, I never managed to earn a degree.

I agree with you about Jim's pessimism and paranoia. He keeps calling President-elect Obama, Senator Harry Reed, and Speaker Pelosi "communists". I think he considers anyone to the left of Attila the Hun as suspect. When he does that, I respond by referring to Newt, DeLay, V-P Cheney, and others of that ilk as "fascists". That usually gets him to back off a little.

I look forward to many more exchanges of ideas and issues with you. Hope I wasn't too verbose in giving you my background, but I tend to be that upon occasion. And please. call me "III". That is what my wife and Jim do, and if it is good enough for them, I hope it is for you as well.

Best Regards,
III