Our Best Stuff on Policing, 2024, and the Debt Ceiling Fight

Plus, Ukraine asks for F-16s.

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Demonstrators march through downtown Memphis protesting the death of Tyre Nichols on January 28, 2023 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Hello and happy Saturday. This edition of the Dispatch Weekly is coming to you from Athens, Ohio, where I am visiting our son for the weekend. He’s a freshman at Ohio University, and I’m waxing a little nostalgic because it just so happens that it’s my alma mater. His dorm is close to the dorms I lived in my first two years, and so now he realizes I wasn’t joking when I said we really did walk uphill both ways to class. 

I’ve seen a range of reactions the last few years as friends and acquaintances went through the roller coaster of senior year and graduation and sending their kids away to college. It made me wonder how we would feel when the time came. And as independent as our son is, it still felt weird when we dropped him off. Had it really been that long since he was a toddler playing with trains, since he’d played tee-ball and learned to ride a bike, since he let me read the entire Harry Potter series to him? It didn’t feel like it.

And yet, after getting used to the house being a little quieter and getting over losing an on-call chauffeur who happily gave his brothers rides to practices or friends’ houses, I was okay with him being a few hours away. I think I figured out why this weekend. 

We’ve raised our kids in the Cincinnati area, but I grew up in a small town in northeast Ohio. More generations than I can remember, on both sides of my family, had done the same. I went to the same elementary school as my mom, attended dances at the same youth center where she’d been a lifeguard. When my parents told stories about their childhoods, I could picture them because I knew the streets and neighborhoods they were talking about. 

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  1. Mike Dixon

    Cheers from a fellow OU grad. I enjoyed hearing from a lot of old classmates who were in Athens this past weekend. A special place, indeed.

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    CynthiaW

    I love the Latest button. That is all.

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      Jack

      Carry on.

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      Ellison

      What new button?

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        CynthiaW

        The Latest button. If you click Menu, there's a heading "Featured," and the first choice under that is "Latest," which lists content, aaaah, chronologically.

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          Ellison

          Thanks. Progress!

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      DougCLE

      You wondered what they’ve been working on for the past three months instead of fixing the Comments section issues… there is your answer.

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        Phil H

        You would have to point that out right after I made my annual subscription payment.

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        CynthiaW

        Three months per "thing" sounds like the government.

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          Wilhelm

          Infrastructure week!

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            CynthiaW

            Well played.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I'm blessed, one of my kids is a graduate of UDayton, the other will start there in the fall. Being a professor there, my oldest popped in from time to time to see me. Mostly to borrow my car his freshman year, or to print in my office, but he controlled when I saw him. I'd see him a couple of times each month. The key was I never went to see him. the funniest thing was the women he eventually married was intimidated by me, and struggled to visit my office with him. She still calls me at home Dr. Janney. Keep in mind, I only use my title in very formal settings (e.g. an awards banquet), or if it gets me a discount somewhere.

    It was a nice distance for him, if something cool was happening at the high school, he could go see it easily enough. My youngest loves to play in "the pit" Oakwood High Schoo's gym. His sophomore year he'll live across the street from it, and will see his younger teammates from this year play there.

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  4. D_gpaprocki

    As a once upon a time Purdue student, and having had 2 sons go off to college here in Indiana, one state over from your family, I found indulging your sendoff tale very pleasant. I'm glad similar experiences and feelings still are expressed--thank you.

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    JohnM.

    I really enjoy reading your short family stories in TDW, Rachael. Thank you.

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    Normb1442

    I'll believe conservatives are for real when they call out the Republican Party for trying to defund the police, which is what the House vote to pull back the money Biden gave it last year was. The IRS is a law enforcement agency. In countries like Greece tax evasion is a national sport, and we've seen what happens when they grifters prevail. And spare me the horror stories about IRS abuse of the citizenry. They're cops. Cops get nasty with lawbreakers. Got a problem with that.

    Hey, maybe you want small government but even small government needs to be funded. Defunding the IRS means the lost revenue must be made up somewhere else, and as of the present it falls on the honest rich and working stiffs. Pretending that it's OK to defund the IRS because of some twaddle about an oppressive government is just dishonest.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      I agree. We need to hire one million cops to patrol the highways with radar detectors to catch all traffic cheats. Nothing oppressive about it whatsoever.

      But I'll support the IRS when Congress passes the specific regulations, rather than let the IRS decide.

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        Normb1442

        The regulations are the tax laws. You're copping out friend.

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          Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

          No, the IRS has, IMHO, too much discretion on how to treat tax questions, questions legislation could, and should resolve. Delegating to the IRS is not the same as specifying the actual regulations to be followed.

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            Normb1442

            Yes, the IRS will interpret the law in ways that you might not like. What you're saying, however, is that Congress should prevent that by...what? Writing laws that are so explicit that they cannot be misunderstood?

            Not possible, my friend. We have courts for exactly that reason -- when the government oversteps, we can go to judges and get redress if the IRS is indeed in the wrong. You, however, choose to preemptively decide that the IRS is always wrong and should be stripped of it's ability to enforce even those laws which no one could misconstrue.

            What you're trying to do is pretend that there'a difference between a tax evader and a common thief. There isn't.

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    Derek M

    Love this story...Great post Rachael :)

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  8. Sally.Tilden

    I graduated from OU 64 years ago and can not imagine the huge changes since those days. Thank you for bringing back some good memories. Sally Tilden

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    DougAz

    Ah, Athens, Ohio. Grew up east along US 50. Used to take 25 to 50 mile bike rides east and west on that highway. Before bikes had gears 😊

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      Jack

      Wow.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      I looked at Ohio University. We turned it down because the nearest pharmacy in my wife's chain was in...West Virginia. A 45 minute drive to work for her didn't seem appealing.

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        DougAz

        Yikes...probably where I grew up

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  10. Stevenreedcurtis

    Thanks for the first picture. POLICE. TERRORISM. Rightly or wrongly, that is what I remember about the riots and marches.

    I work in SF. We are all colleagues, of course we talk. I pretty much ended the conversation when I jokingly suggested an SML. Save Mens' lives because of the disproportionate number of men killed by police. If I'd really been with it, I'd have suggested it be led by a trained fascist.

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