The three hippos spent about an hour together at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Hippo Cove. Provided
We have seen the best and the worst during the past year, from local volunteers helping people in Texas and Puerto Rico to the continued proliferation of opioids that are affecting nearly every facet of our lives. As we wind down the year and prepare for the holiday season, today I'm launching the inaugural Sugarplum and Lump of Coal Award.
I'm offering sugar plums to people, places or organizations that uplifted our community and nation in 2017. Conversely, those who did the opposite get a lump of coal in the spirit of Santa's "naughty or nice" list.
I asked our readers to contribute to this list and received interesting entries, some included below. And here's the good news: This is the gift that keeps on giving. For online readers, please send me your Sugarplums or Coal nominees and I will update this column until Christmas Day. Please include your Twitter handle and hometown.
Let's get started:
Sugarplum: To FC Cincinnati, which awaits word at this writing on whether it will join Major League Soccer. If the team is successful, it will be the culmination of years of work by the Lindner Family and General Manager Jeff Berding. FC Cincinnati has brought an unprecedented excitement to a thirsty Cincinnati fan base, and fans have responded in kind.
Coal: President Donald J. Trump. I hear the chorus accusing me of bias, but you have to admit, our sitting president -- whose approval rating is at an all-time low for a first-year modern president -- squandered any political capital he had coming into the White House. From referring to neo-Nazis as "good people" to going back on his word for something as simple as visiting one of his golf nearly every weekend (after excoriating his predecessor for the same), to supporting an unpopular tax bill, Trump has done little, from a policy or legislative standpoint. Instead, he seems to stay in campaign mode and is good at "keeping up mess," as my grandmother might have said. We need to see better leadership from the president in 2018.
Sugarplum:Fiona!
Sugarplum: Adam "Pacman" Jones. The troubled Bengals wide receiver may sometimes yield to his id, but he has a huge heart. Jones and his wife donated 400 bicycles to students at Bond Hill Academy last week. Jones said he can relate to the kids at Bond Hill Academy because, like them, he grew up poor, and told reporters he wanted to uplift the kids there. Jones has been involved in previous giveaways at Rockdale and Lincoln Heights Elementary Schools.
Coal: The City of Cincinnati quickly put together a plan of support for FC Cincinnati's MLS bid which could be good for the city. But the city gets a lump of coal for seeming to be less nimble when it comes to diving in on everyman issues, as mentioned in a Nov. 28 column titled, "A soccer deal in no time flat."
Sugarplum: To the Franciscan Friars who have been serving the poor of Cincinnati for more than 170 years. The Friars and its partners this year opened the St. Anthony Center, a one-stop-shop of sorts for the homeless in Cincinnati in a 40,000-square-foot space in Over-the-Rhine. Seven non-profits are located under one roof. The neediest among us can now receive haircuts, a comfortable bed for in-patient treatment, eat in a new 250-seat dining hall and receive employment training. Among the biggest obstacles to getting help when you are down is knowing where to go and being able to get there. The St. Anthony Center goes a long way to fulfill that need.
Coal: To Richard Spencer and the whole "alt-right" movement that inspired a Mason man and a Northern Kentucky man to travel to the group's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last summer and commit violence. James A. Fields Jr., formerly of Union, Kentucky, has been charged with murder in the killing of Heather Heyer, who died when a car he was driving plowed into a crowd, police said. Daniel Borden, of Mason, has been charged in the beating of an African-American man in a gang attack caught on camera.
Sugarplum:Blink Cincinnati, the spectacular light show that illuminated Cincinnati from its front porch to its back steps attracted more people Downtown than any other event in history. We can't wait for its return.
Sugarplum: To the Haile Foundation's People's Liberty grant. If someone offered you a grant to take a sabbatical to fulfill your dream project, would you do it? People's Liberty grants are for $100,000 to two people with a big idea over a year that transforms the community; $15,000 to a team to transform a storefront positively impacts the community and eight, $10,000 awards to grantees to prototype civic challenges. One of most interesting projects from the 2017 cohort is work by recovering addict Tracy Brumfield to help the incarcerated gain access to needed resources as they re-enter society.
Coal: To we the people, as regards the percentage of U.S. citizens who are ready for military service. Council for a Strong America's annual Citizen Readiness Index shows that nationwide:
• 12 percent of adults aged 17-24 have been arrested at least once.
• Approximately 1 in 8 young adults aged 16 to 24 are neither employed nor in school.
• More than 70 percent of those between the ages of 17 and 24 cannot qualify for military service due to problems with obesity, education, drug abuse or crime.
(For the record, Ohio earned a "B" rating, ranking it among the top eight states in the index. Three states -- Massachusetts, Hawaii and Vermont -- earned "A" ratings.)
Gee, I wonder if this is a problem in the Soviet Union.
Byron McCauley is a columnist and a member of The Enquirer editorial board. He can be reached at bmccauley@enquirer.com, 513-768-8565 or Twitter: @byronmccauley.