I've actually got a picture of me and my dad, holding hands on our front porch with the flag hanging above us (as I said, it was the fourth of July) in our 'baseball' outfits with the "Go Metz!" stickers.

I was old enough to finally begin to really understand and that was why I wanted to march with the local Dems, our tiny contingent.

People speaking out, consistently, and working on the day to day issues that yeah, affected me, and my neighbors, and my town, and my state, and my country, and my world, it mattered.

Today's young Ohioans can't imagine what it meant to have 'Metz' and John Glenn as our representatives. I reitterate, it mattered.

And we were proud.

Manufacturing jobs were drying up, yes, we had out burning river episode, and there were those embarrassing idiots down in Cinci screaming about Mapplethorpe by day and running around in their Klan hoods by night, but damn it, we had two Senators with a clue.

I'm not pining for the 'good ole days', I'm trying to light a fire under some butts and remind folks that we need some good days TOMORROW too, and that's going to take work, not whining.

Although, tonight, with the loss of Howard, yeah, it's ok to cry in a mug of burning river and raise said glass to Howard before we sleep it off and get back to work.

It IS depressing. The trick is, not to let that stop us.