How to Revitalize the Hamilton County Fair

[An edited version of this column appeared in the 8/15/08 edition of the Enquirer.]

Despite declining attendance, the just-completed Hamilton County Fair is too valuable a resource to be allowed to waste away to nothing. Community and business leaders need to work together to revitalize this event.

For the first time, my daughter entered a few food exhibits at this year’s fair (and took home a couple of ribbons). Suddenly, my family had a personal stake in the event. All three of my kids are already talking about what they want to enter next year. So it seems to me that one good way to breathe new life into the fair might be to increase the number of people who exhibit.

Although commercial agriculture has become less important to Hamilton County, more and more people are interested in being “green in the city” Lots of folks have backyard gardens, and even more want to learn how to grow (and preserve) some of their own food.

Perhaps the fair could gain new life by partnering with local garden centers, food co-ops, and the locavore community. There’s a lot of bread-baking, jelly-making, quilting, and container gardening going on. If these folks used next year’s fair to show off the fruits of their labor, they would be promoting sustainability while simultaneously establishing ties to—and strengthening—a vital community event. Allowing people to purchase Exhibitors passes online would make this even easier.

Rather than watching the demolition derby and slamming down nasty carny food, wouldn’t it be great to stroll around the fairgrounds visiting booths from local restaurants, listening to music, and checking out local artists and displays about easy recipes and micro-gardening?

The kids could have fun visiting the barn animals, riding the rides, participating in cooking demos, and playing games (Guitar Hero competition, anyone?). How about old-fashioned sack races and balloon tosses? Face painters and side shows (zoo animals, magicians) would liven things up too.

I can even imagine a local radio station broadcasting live from the fair and setting up a couple of national music acts, or hosting a “Battle of the Bands” as a grandstand event.

Here’s hoping the Fair Board can commit to change and not simply remain satisfied with the increasingly dreary status quo.

Gas Prices Aren't Coming Down

[From 8/8/08, in response to a Peter Bronson column about gas prices.]

To the editor:

Contra Peter Bronson (“Democrats actually worked against the president,” August 7), no reputable economist believes that lifting the bans on offshore drilling “could reduce gas prices dramatically.” Virtually all experts acknowledge that the real impact on gas prices would be no more than five or six cents, and would go unrealized for as much as a decade.

If Bronson—or an Enquirer reader—can direct me to an economist who actually argues that permitting offshore drilling will reduce gas prices by more than a few pennies, I’m all ears.

What Socialism Is

[From 7/28/08, in response to a letter characterizing Barack Obama as a "socialist."]

To the editor:

Letter writers such as Scott Hobbs (“Teepen confused on socialism meaning,” July 28) who regularly paint Democrats—and specifically Obama—as “socialists” need to crack open a book and learn what Marxism and Communism were really about. However much you might hate progressive taxation, it is simply qualitatively different than eliminating the private ownership of the factors of production. Even if you find it onerous, government regulation is not the equivalent of the total nationalization of the economy.

These are not minor distinctions, but fundamental to the very definition of what Soviet Communism was, and why it failed.

The attempt to tie Democrats and liberals (the latter of which was a term of abuse within the Soviet political structure) to Marxism is incredibly ignorant of the actual history and structure of Soviet Communism.