Janesville, Wisconsin, my wife’s home town was in the
news again this week. Not too surprising
being that her current favorite son, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who
chooses to keep his family in Janesville and, when he is home on weekends,
which is often goes to the church in which Mary and I were married.
Janesville gained a lot of notoriety when both the
Republican and Democratic candidates stumped there during the recent Wisconsin
primaries. This was unusual and hadn’t
been seen in the many years since, what was then the oldest continuous G<M
assembly plant in the country closed its doors for good, losing, what was the
primary revenue source for the city of 30,000 in one fell swoop.

About the same time we saw a story about a Ku Klux
Klan rally where Geraldo Rivera stood bravely in the path of the white euphemists
and defended a rather small minority population against ridicule and scorn.
To me, the ultimate breaking news dealt with picture
of the water purification plant, which had somehow been leaked on the internet
for any and all to see where and how the water supply to the entire town was
cleansed and distributed. Mary and I
felt that perhaps the story was that if the terrorists could defile the water
system in Janesville, nowhere in the country was safe, or perhaps there was a
plea for national funding to erect a barrier against contamination. Whatever, the moment passed and once can only
feel that the news “stringer” moved from Janesville to other environs, since
the stories worthy of national prominence slowed and stopped.

Until Paul Ryan.
Mary’s mother is buried in the Janesville cemetery,
and Mary’s sister, who lives in Berlin, Wisconsin planted flowers near the
grave, only to run into a new regulation that forbid permanent plantings in
favor of cut flowers, which were removed after a short time. This angered her sister, and we were tasked
with checking on the grave when we visited Janesville to ensure her grave was
kept up. On one occasion when we were so
doing, we took our grandson, named Ryan Kelley (Mary’s maiden name) FitzGerald
with us. As he wandered through the cemetery
he was awestruck with the number of graves that bore is first name: Ryan. Literally dozens of stone, many large and
ornate, rose above ground, demanding attention. Of course that was the Ryan
family, the same as now is represented in the House of Representatives, third
in line for the Presidency. To this day
we haven’t the heart or inclination to shatter his observation.
Rep. Ryan has said he is not yet on-board to support
Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for President. Mary has told me that she, “Couldn’t pull the
level for Trump.” Although we actually
use a cursor and enter to vote in California, I am inclined to think that there
may be a Janesville mindset that is common to those born and raised there.
Perhaps it is something someone put in the water?
In my next Post, which I hope will be soon, I intend
to explore why registration in 5 and 10-k events has fallen off almost 10% in
the last year. Please join me.
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