My nephew David made this impressive sand castle this past week — spent most of a day working on it to the delight of his nephews and nieces. I’ve going to post all of my photos on Flickr, if I can figure out how.

David, with the castle

By the next morning, the castle was gone, the sand where the castle stood was smooth, as if it had never been. Just one year ago, I wrote, “Thoughts Occasioned By The Death Of Tim Russert” and yesterday “Meet The Press” devoted considerably air time to commemorate Tim.

I was thinking about my brother-in-law, Jimmy Dunaway. It’s just hard to believe that he is gone. I was at Lakeside, Ohio for the Methodist Church Conference with my sister Carole, two of my nephews and their families and Patty Matthews, pastor of the Farmersville Methodist Church, and her family. What a nice time. But, we all missed Jimmy Dunaway this year. Jimmy, my brother-in-law, served as a Methodist preacher for about fifty years, most recently at Centerville Methodist, and every year at this time came to Lakeside. Jimmy passed away on April 20.

At supper, each evening, before eating, the group formed a circle, held hands, and said a prayer, with the children encouraged to participate. One eight year old, with the appropriate name, “Sage,” one evening said he would like to sing a song and when he started, his younger brother joined in — two sweet voices.

Sage later said he learned the song at school and now, with the help of Google, I see it is from the Disney movie, “Bambi.”

Love is a song that never ends
Life may be swift and fleeting
Hope may die yet love’s beautiful music
Comes each day like the dawn

Love is a song that never ends
One simple theme repeating
Like the voice of a heavenly choir
Love’s sweet music flows on

Sage, Kate, Grace, David, and Ike

I’m convinced that comments made during Kettering’s 6.9 mill renewal levy, that passed on May 5, violated Ohio’s Revised Code. I’ve given myself a week to think about whether I should proceed with making a formal complaint to the Ohio Election Commission, and I’ve decided to go ahead, though I still need to have the document notarized.

I’ve boiled down my complaint to one specific comment made by the Superintendent of Kettering Schools, Robert Mengerink, in the school publication mailed to all Kettering households, “The Blue Ribbon Report.” In that publication, received by voters a couple of weeks prior to the election, Dr. Mengerink is quoted as saying, “There will be absolutely no increase in taxes as a result of this Renewal Issue.”

If you listen to Dr. Mengerink’s comments at the Kettering Board of Education meeting, you will see that at that meeting he used great care to not say something that was technically inaccurate — though, obviously, his words transmitted misinformation to most viewers. It is interesting that, in light of Dr. Mengerink’s care in his spoken comments, that he would allow “The Blue Ribbon Report” to cross the line and print a written statement, a quote from him, that, in my judgment, is impossible to defend.

“Absolutely,” to me, rules out any exception of using alternative meanings of the phrase “no increase in taxes,” since the word “absolutely” means “without exception, without condition.” I am attaching the copy of “The Blue Ribbon Report” that was sent to my house. You can see the report here.

I followed the guide for making complaints, so I hope there is not some technicality I missed that will cause it to be rejected. You can see a PDF of my full complaint here.

I am also attaching to the complaint a copy of a letter prepared, I believe, by the principal of one of the Kettering Elementary School in my neighborhood, Oakview School. My contention is that this letter occured in response to Dr. Mengerink’s promise of “absolutely no increase in taxes,” and gives a clear meaning of how the word “absolutely” was meant to be understood. The Oakview letter says, “Remember, this issue won’t cost any of us one cent more in taxes …” You can see a copy of the Oakview letter here.

The issue that is important here is the issue of local control, as I write about here. The issue is that public schools have little hope for improvement if antidemocratic forces are in control. I write about here.

Now to get this notarized and in the mail — and then to see what happens.

Note: After reading Dr. Kinlaw’s book, I made this response:  When We Reject The Gods Of Our Childish Imaginations, What Remains?

My goal this week is to finish reading Dennis Kinlaw’s latest book, “Let Start With Jesus,” and write an article about what it says. Dr. Kinlaw was President of Asbury College when I graduated in 1969 — 40 years ago this year! Dr. Kinlaw was 46 years old at the time — 15 years younger than I am now! It seems hard for me to believe, but it must be true.

My class, “The Knights,” was his first graduating class. I hope to see Dr. Kinlaw at the college reunion at the end of June, and I want to be able to tell him that I read his book and that, in fact, I wrote about it. I need to get going. I’ve decided that Dennis Kinlaw’s New Book Is The Next Book I Am Going To Finish Reading

I’m proud to say that Governor Ted Strickland graduated from Asbury Colege in 1963 — two years before I got there as a freshman in 1965.