Hey, it works for Willie Nelson - He crooned a memorable song urging mothers not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys. Certainly, there are fewer cowboys today.
He sings,
“Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold.
They'd rather give you a song then diamonds or gold.
Lonestar belt buckles and old faded Levi's and each night begins a new day.
If you don't understand him and he don't die young.
He'll probably just ride away.”
And then it gets worse.
So yes, by Golly, Willie has convinced this old Buckeroo to discourage my son from becoming a cowboy.
(Oh, he’s already a firefighter-paramedic. He’s lost to the world of 9 - 5 easy work.)
But Willie needs to update the lyrics to address a new set of mama’s. Nothing else seems to be working, so maybe a song will dissuade impressionable young parents from smoking methamphetamine and raping young children. (If the subjects too raw, move on. It won’t go away, but if you’re lucky, you’ll only blindly support the issue by paying taxes and bitching about why “somebody won’t do something.”)
There was a newpaper article in the Exponent-Telegram today which quotes my boss as saying we’ve file 75 abuse & neglect child petitions already this year. The county has 17,000 people. Um, sorry you were in Court all day Friday, Thomas. We’re up to 80 - it was a busy day. We need to talk in the morning.)
(One of these days real soon, I’ll tell you how this ol’ gunslinger defense lawyer ended up on the Lone Ranger’s side of the law. I do abuse & neglect and crimes against children. There is plenty to keep me busy. At the end of a case, I look all solemn, but I admit, my heart does a little zippidee-do-dah when the baliff takes into custody a child molester.)
I’m absolutely not fooling when I tell you that half of abuse & neglect cases are based on the parents use of drugs. Around here, it’s usually methamphetamine which it pretty easy to tell - It rots your teeth, covers you with sores like a leper, you lose massive amounts of weight and you forget that you have kids. Oh, we do have the heroin here and pain pills there, together with the “treatment meds,” buphrenorphine, but meth is our big deal now.
Do you remember how your parents watched you every minute and you could get away with anything? And if you were away from the house and smoked a cigarette, a well-intentioned (ho-ho) neighbor ratted you out before you got home?
There’s less of that which goes on now. In the last year, I’ve had 2 year olds go exploring on a farm (including one that had an unprotected farm pond), 4 year olds take their odd assortment of toys in a wagon on a BUSY highway because they were hungry. I’ve seen multiple kids left with drug-addicted babysitters, some of whom appear on the sex-abuser lists. Those are the high points, just some examples.
Well, somebody ought to do something. Harrumph. Harrumph, I say. (Psssst - Hey, Governor - the freeze in state hiring and the across-the-board budget cuts are doing wonders for our work with children. Nice going.)
Oh, and the title mentions having sex with children. Another quarter of our Abuse & Neglect cases are sexual. Oh boy, does it happen. I know that you don’t believe that it happens in your nice neighborhood. After all – A child molester doesn’t bring the kid out on the front steps and abuse him or her or both him and her there. By and large, they are warped, they’re not stupid. And then after the abuse, after the damage is done, they do additional damage by making up all kinds of BAD THINGS that will happen to the kid and the family if he or she tells. Then, the kid sits in a private hell for 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 years before s/he reveals. And then the defenders do what they are supposed to do - cast doubt because it’s not a fresh complaint. If only the children knew that your average child molester (usually a man) is a screwed-up giant pussy who’s afraid of his own shadow.
And the saddest part is, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Mizpah!
10 September 2017
The Megachurch in Disasters
Rev. Joel Osteen and his megachurch are getting a lot of noise about not opening the church during the Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston.
I don’t really care for Joel Osteen. I have no reason to hope that something bad happens to him. If he were coming down the street, I’d greet him like I greet everybody. But if he were coming down the sidewalk on the other side, I wouldn’t bother crossing the street just to meet him.
It’s that smile. In the original Star Trek, a Klingon commander said he didn’t trust anybody who smiles that much.
And it’s that “prosperity gospel,” which seems a bit shaky scripturally. (1) It seems rather self-serving that God wants me to have all this money. And disappointing when it doesn’t work.
And now the good Reverend is getting heat for not opening up his “megachurch” in Houston for victims of Hurricane Harvey.(2)
The internet is aflame. Anyway, that’s what everyone says. There was a cute, catchy article in the Washington that the only thing that the megachurch shelters is people from paying taxes. Whether that’s accurate is not nearly so important than I didn’t think of that line.
I have two concerns about the criticism.
First, have the noisemakers done anything other than make noise against Osteen?
It’s awfully easy to say “You should be doing thus-and-so.” In this case, open up the church. How many people does the Washington Post house in an emergency? What about the last sub-zero day in Washington, how many folks slept on cots in the newsroom? How about us as indivduals? The Red Cross is accepting donations. Wouldn’t it be more honest to criticize Osteen only after you pitch the ARC10 bucks?
Second, what resources does the church actually have?
Well, there’s money of course. Picking on someone rich ignores the significance of the Widow’s Mite. From each a portion is expected and fair - but from everyone in accordance with their means.
There’s the “megachurch” building. What’s shown on TV is HUGE - theater seating for maybe 10,000 adoring church members. It’s got to be 150,000 square feet. Couldn’t you store refugees in there?
Well, it’s not like a warehouse. It’s REALLY high and unless they’re going to erect scaffolding, only the lower 7 feet of the floor plan can be used. What is there? Well, it’s 2/3 filled up with theater seating for maybe 10,000 adoring church member. Look, listening to The Sound of Music in a theater seat is bad enough. Try living there.
There’s the rest of the building. Never been there. I assume it has some purpose which in many cases would be inconsistent with housing refugees. Sorta like the newsroom at the Washington Post.
What resources other than space would the church (or the Washington Post or your house) have to provide?
Water - To drink, for sanitation, at least one gallon per person per day. Water, normally no problem. Uh-oh, severe flooding shuts the water service down. So you depend on what you have stored and what you can get by truck. For every thousand people you house, you have to have 4-1/6 tons of water every day.
Food - 1500 calories per person per day, with some special needs (e.g., diabetics) thrown into the mix. There will be no electricity, so it has to be food that will withstand room temperatures for long periods. It also has to be refreshed from time to time, even freeze-dried items. The people in the Greenbrier in West Virginia - where the emergency congressional bunker was located - knew that when items from cans started showing up in the employee’s kitchens that the Government was replacing the emergency food supply.
Electricity? We got along for a 100,000 years without electricity. But we are so used to being at the end of (fragile) power grid, when the electric goes off, we freak.
We have an example for how a facility roughly like the big church works for a hurricane, Hurricane Katrina. The City housed people in the Superdome, the NFL stadium. The toilets quit working, they ran out of water and food was scarce. Also, kids were going crazy because their electric toys to which they were addicted didn’t work.
I wonder if the Osteen church has buses? I note below that a lot of people gambled that the storm wouldn’t be as bad and they lost. The truly poor couldn’t gamble. Had they had a “let’s get the hell out of here” mentality, they didn’t have the means. So I can see churches, bus companies, RV owners, van owners having a moral duty to help people who are sufficiently cautious to get out of Dodge.
To do emergency planning, you have to do it before the emergency. And then, you have to have ONE person/heirarchy making decisions. In the 1985 West Virginia Floods, the State emergency people were ineffective, until Gov. Moore stepped in and ran it like a King.
In a widespread emergency, someone needs to activate the specific-type emergency plan for the region and extend it however far geographically as it needs to go. (Wow, this is dry stuff. Emergency planning is dry. Until the hurricane. Or the TRULY sudden emergency, an earthquake.)
After all, a disaster is not defined as something which has to kill a lot of people. It’s an emergency that the normal response assets in a community cannot deal with. A serious school bus wreck in Barbour County, West Virginia, would be a disaster. We don’t have enough rescue companies or ambulances to respond and take care of everyone. The same school bus wreck in New York City would be a bad school bus wreck, not a disaster. The World Trade Center was a disaster.
By the way, Flight 93 wasn’t a disaster. The people in Flight 93 were killed on impact. That’s a great big huge tragedy. It’s not a disaster. A few fire trucks, police to mark off the scene, and the NTSB are all that they needed.
Houston is a disaster, no doubt. But don’t go picking on one megachurch as being the bad guy. In helping others, most of us are bad guys.
(1) I probably approach about the mean among the readers, so don’t take the “shaky scripturally” as the voice of authority.
(2) I hesitate a little to use “victims” about everybody inconvenienced. What some of them were are people who miscalculated that a hurricane that they knew 2 days in advance was coming with a lot of rain. It’s not like an earthquake where one minute you’re normal and the next minute things have gone to hell.
I don’t really care for Joel Osteen. I have no reason to hope that something bad happens to him. If he were coming down the street, I’d greet him like I greet everybody. But if he were coming down the sidewalk on the other side, I wouldn’t bother crossing the street just to meet him.
It’s that smile. In the original Star Trek, a Klingon commander said he didn’t trust anybody who smiles that much.
And it’s that “prosperity gospel,” which seems a bit shaky scripturally. (1) It seems rather self-serving that God wants me to have all this money. And disappointing when it doesn’t work.
And now the good Reverend is getting heat for not opening up his “megachurch” in Houston for victims of Hurricane Harvey.(2)
The internet is aflame. Anyway, that’s what everyone says. There was a cute, catchy article in the Washington that the only thing that the megachurch shelters is people from paying taxes. Whether that’s accurate is not nearly so important than I didn’t think of that line.
I have two concerns about the criticism.
First, have the noisemakers done anything other than make noise against Osteen?
It’s awfully easy to say “You should be doing thus-and-so.” In this case, open up the church. How many people does the Washington Post house in an emergency? What about the last sub-zero day in Washington, how many folks slept on cots in the newsroom? How about us as indivduals? The Red Cross is accepting donations. Wouldn’t it be more honest to criticize Osteen only after you pitch the ARC10 bucks?
Second, what resources does the church actually have?
Well, there’s money of course. Picking on someone rich ignores the significance of the Widow’s Mite. From each a portion is expected and fair - but from everyone in accordance with their means.
There’s the “megachurch” building. What’s shown on TV is HUGE - theater seating for maybe 10,000 adoring church members. It’s got to be 150,000 square feet. Couldn’t you store refugees in there?
Well, it’s not like a warehouse. It’s REALLY high and unless they’re going to erect scaffolding, only the lower 7 feet of the floor plan can be used. What is there? Well, it’s 2/3 filled up with theater seating for maybe 10,000 adoring church member. Look, listening to The Sound of Music in a theater seat is bad enough. Try living there.
There’s the rest of the building. Never been there. I assume it has some purpose which in many cases would be inconsistent with housing refugees. Sorta like the newsroom at the Washington Post.
What resources other than space would the church (or the Washington Post or your house) have to provide?
Water - To drink, for sanitation, at least one gallon per person per day. Water, normally no problem. Uh-oh, severe flooding shuts the water service down. So you depend on what you have stored and what you can get by truck. For every thousand people you house, you have to have 4-1/6 tons of water every day.
Food - 1500 calories per person per day, with some special needs (e.g., diabetics) thrown into the mix. There will be no electricity, so it has to be food that will withstand room temperatures for long periods. It also has to be refreshed from time to time, even freeze-dried items. The people in the Greenbrier in West Virginia - where the emergency congressional bunker was located - knew that when items from cans started showing up in the employee’s kitchens that the Government was replacing the emergency food supply.
Electricity? We got along for a 100,000 years without electricity. But we are so used to being at the end of (fragile) power grid, when the electric goes off, we freak.
We have an example for how a facility roughly like the big church works for a hurricane, Hurricane Katrina. The City housed people in the Superdome, the NFL stadium. The toilets quit working, they ran out of water and food was scarce. Also, kids were going crazy because their electric toys to which they were addicted didn’t work.
I wonder if the Osteen church has buses? I note below that a lot of people gambled that the storm wouldn’t be as bad and they lost. The truly poor couldn’t gamble. Had they had a “let’s get the hell out of here” mentality, they didn’t have the means. So I can see churches, bus companies, RV owners, van owners having a moral duty to help people who are sufficiently cautious to get out of Dodge.
To do emergency planning, you have to do it before the emergency. And then, you have to have ONE person/heirarchy making decisions. In the 1985 West Virginia Floods, the State emergency people were ineffective, until Gov. Moore stepped in and ran it like a King.
In a widespread emergency, someone needs to activate the specific-type emergency plan for the region and extend it however far geographically as it needs to go. (Wow, this is dry stuff. Emergency planning is dry. Until the hurricane. Or the TRULY sudden emergency, an earthquake.)
After all, a disaster is not defined as something which has to kill a lot of people. It’s an emergency that the normal response assets in a community cannot deal with. A serious school bus wreck in Barbour County, West Virginia, would be a disaster. We don’t have enough rescue companies or ambulances to respond and take care of everyone. The same school bus wreck in New York City would be a bad school bus wreck, not a disaster. The World Trade Center was a disaster.
By the way, Flight 93 wasn’t a disaster. The people in Flight 93 were killed on impact. That’s a great big huge tragedy. It’s not a disaster. A few fire trucks, police to mark off the scene, and the NTSB are all that they needed.
Houston is a disaster, no doubt. But don’t go picking on one megachurch as being the bad guy. In helping others, most of us are bad guys.
(1) I probably approach about the mean among the readers, so don’t take the “shaky scripturally” as the voice of authority.
(2) I hesitate a little to use “victims” about everybody inconvenienced. What some of them were are people who miscalculated that a hurricane that they knew 2 days in advance was coming with a lot of rain. It’s not like an earthquake where one minute you’re normal and the next minute things have gone to hell.
24 April 2016
Elections - Who Cares?
Take a step back from this election cycle.
Hey, we all know that the “other guy” is crooked, a closet atheist/axe murderer, an uptight libertine, teetotally drunk, a kindly grandmother/grandfather who hates children and puppy dogs, and who supports pickpockets, pimps, pederasts and other people who’s sins begin with the letter “P.” That is a given.
For sure, s/he’s vain, believes that God/the Universe/the Force has decreed that s/he rule and that s/he will save America from certain doom which is certain to follow another candidate’s election.
And we drink the Kool-Aid deeply. We actually believe that s/he is the only hope for America and the world.
History does not really support that. We have survived public officials who a substantial part of us saw as devils, the Anti-Christ and all-round bad people. Just looking at presidents, this includes Thomas Jefferson (founder of a party that Washington warned us about.) It includes Jackson, a poorly educated hothead. VanBuren who just was sort of VanBuren. Buchanan who fiddled while the nation fell apart. Lincoln, who got ZERO votes in several states. Grant - great general, lousy president. Theodore Roosevelt, that “damned cowboy,” according to Mark Hanna. Wilson who, along with TR, took the country hopelessly left-ward. Warren Gamaliel Harding, who played a great game of poker. FDR, Truman, LBJ, Reagan, Clinton, two Bush’s and finally Obama. That’s quite a rogues’ gallery. You know, I’m looking forward to the Tubman $20 bill. At least it’ll be someone’s picture who we haven’t heard real bad things about.
Oh, and it includes Oook, who first took over the Neanderthals.
And we survived most of them.
What to do . . .
No, do not expect answers from these Dispatches. At least I’m not quite so vain as some people mentioned above.
One possible explanation is inertia. Government is a ponderous beast. The most radical of candidates is talking about changing the way government spends maybe 20% of the money it takes in. Government and people’s expectations of government makes it highly resistant to change.
Another possible explanation is the vast mix of deeply held political beliefs. Abortion, gay anything, defense, foreign competition, immigrants, health care is the ONE THING that matters. But it depends on who you ask. The voting public mills around like cattle in a pen. And each separate interest has approximately the same access to means of communication. We just claim that the other guy has an unfair advantage, usually gained through some sort of skullduggery. We just don’t want the other guy’s position to be discussed because it's clearly silly.
We’ll survive President Trump-Clinton-Sanders-Cruz. We always have.
Mizpah!
Hey, we all know that the “other guy” is crooked, a closet atheist/axe murderer, an uptight libertine, teetotally drunk, a kindly grandmother/grandfather who hates children and puppy dogs, and who supports pickpockets, pimps, pederasts and other people who’s sins begin with the letter “P.” That is a given.
For sure, s/he’s vain, believes that God/the Universe/the Force has decreed that s/he rule and that s/he will save America from certain doom which is certain to follow another candidate’s election.
And we drink the Kool-Aid deeply. We actually believe that s/he is the only hope for America and the world.
History does not really support that. We have survived public officials who a substantial part of us saw as devils, the Anti-Christ and all-round bad people. Just looking at presidents, this includes Thomas Jefferson (founder of a party that Washington warned us about.) It includes Jackson, a poorly educated hothead. VanBuren who just was sort of VanBuren. Buchanan who fiddled while the nation fell apart. Lincoln, who got ZERO votes in several states. Grant - great general, lousy president. Theodore Roosevelt, that “damned cowboy,” according to Mark Hanna. Wilson who, along with TR, took the country hopelessly left-ward. Warren Gamaliel Harding, who played a great game of poker. FDR, Truman, LBJ, Reagan, Clinton, two Bush’s and finally Obama. That’s quite a rogues’ gallery. You know, I’m looking forward to the Tubman $20 bill. At least it’ll be someone’s picture who we haven’t heard real bad things about.
Oh, and it includes Oook, who first took over the Neanderthals.
And we survived most of them.
What to do . . .
No, do not expect answers from these Dispatches. At least I’m not quite so vain as some people mentioned above.
One possible explanation is inertia. Government is a ponderous beast. The most radical of candidates is talking about changing the way government spends maybe 20% of the money it takes in. Government and people’s expectations of government makes it highly resistant to change.
Another possible explanation is the vast mix of deeply held political beliefs. Abortion, gay anything, defense, foreign competition, immigrants, health care is the ONE THING that matters. But it depends on who you ask. The voting public mills around like cattle in a pen. And each separate interest has approximately the same access to means of communication. We just claim that the other guy has an unfair advantage, usually gained through some sort of skullduggery. We just don’t want the other guy’s position to be discussed because it's clearly silly.
We’ll survive President Trump-Clinton-Sanders-Cruz. We always have.
Mizpah!
06 April 2016
Sick people
I spent some time in the last couple of weeks interacting with really sick people in the hospital and elsewhere.
(Why is irrelevant. I'm fine. I can tackle twice my weight in wildcats.)
Reaction to people who are sick of vary. Sympathy. Empathy. (To the extent that person has empathy.) Indifference. Helplessness. The sad knowledge that the patient has been hurled into the big medical monster and has little control. A big dose of "There but for the grace of God …)
The real lesson is that these are just sick people. Our bodies do not have a warranty. Nor do they have an expiration date. But they are people.
I see a lady who is obviously undergoing chemotherapy. She knows it's obvious. The head scarf is not to hide the fact – is to give her a scrape of dignity. When a person is on extra oxygen, that just means they need extra oxygen, so thank God they live in a time when it’s available. It's a problem, but not a big deal. I remember when my mom first went out with an oxygen tank. She didn’t want to go out. The oxygen tank would draw attention. But she went anyway, to Barnes and Noble. Nobody seemed to notice. She was amazed.
They're just people.
Why do we fear disease so much? Very few things are contagious between humans, absent sharing blood products. Cancer absolutely is not catching. Heart disease? Nope. Stroke? Huh-uh. Even the great big bugaboo of contagion, AIDS, is only feebly contagious. Father Mychal Judge, "The Saint of 9-11," had an AIDS ministry. He said that “his people” were amazed when he touched them because they had been treated so much differently, even by their families.
I saw a guy last week, a "working man," about my age. He probably was near the end of heavy radiation. He had a radiation burn on his neck and nowhere else. He was remarkably unselfconscious about it. The burn was not covered with a bandage -- in fact he had no head covering other than his John Deere cap. He was going through a lot, but he was comporting himself with class and with quiet dignity.
They are people.
We are all in this together.
Mizpah!
(Why is irrelevant. I'm fine. I can tackle twice my weight in wildcats.)
Reaction to people who are sick of vary. Sympathy. Empathy. (To the extent that person has empathy.) Indifference. Helplessness. The sad knowledge that the patient has been hurled into the big medical monster and has little control. A big dose of "There but for the grace of God …)
The real lesson is that these are just sick people. Our bodies do not have a warranty. Nor do they have an expiration date. But they are people.
I see a lady who is obviously undergoing chemotherapy. She knows it's obvious. The head scarf is not to hide the fact – is to give her a scrape of dignity. When a person is on extra oxygen, that just means they need extra oxygen, so thank God they live in a time when it’s available. It's a problem, but not a big deal. I remember when my mom first went out with an oxygen tank. She didn’t want to go out. The oxygen tank would draw attention. But she went anyway, to Barnes and Noble. Nobody seemed to notice. She was amazed.
They're just people.
Why do we fear disease so much? Very few things are contagious between humans, absent sharing blood products. Cancer absolutely is not catching. Heart disease? Nope. Stroke? Huh-uh. Even the great big bugaboo of contagion, AIDS, is only feebly contagious. Father Mychal Judge, "The Saint of 9-11," had an AIDS ministry. He said that “his people” were amazed when he touched them because they had been treated so much differently, even by their families.
I saw a guy last week, a "working man," about my age. He probably was near the end of heavy radiation. He had a radiation burn on his neck and nowhere else. He was remarkably unselfconscious about it. The burn was not covered with a bandage -- in fact he had no head covering other than his John Deere cap. He was going through a lot, but he was comporting himself with class and with quiet dignity.
They are people.
We are all in this together.
Mizpah!
06 March 2016
Now that West Virginia has permitless concealed gun carry . . .
West Virginia now permits people without a gun permit to carry a weapon concealed.
I have always considered that a mega-stupid idea. But now it’s the law. And the strength of America is that we follow the law even when we think it’s stupid.
So let’s consider what we do now:
(1) Get the training anyway.
Many people dislike the NRA. Hell, sometimes I dislike some of the stupid shit the NRA does and I’m a member. But one thing they do right is certify instructors. There is no shortage of instructors who will gladly share their knowledge.
The reason I don’t use a chain saw is simple: I’m not trained. The reason an untrained person should avoid using a gun is the same. You may hurt somebody.
(2) Be prepared for a law enforcement response.
Officers are going to be more careful. They’d be idiots not to be. There will be more dangerous people out there carrying guns. Don’t get all huffy when an officer who doesn’t know you treats you like you may be dangerous. After all, to him/her, you just may be dangerous.
(3) When you encounter an officer, if you are armed tell the officer that you are, and where the gun is. Don’t be surprised if the officer relaxes and you talk about guns. If you have a permit, show it to the officer FIRST. Until you identify whether you have a weapon, the officer HAS to consider that you may be dangerous.
(4) Remember that there are still places you cannot legally go armed.
A person/business can ban guns. Right now, there is a sign on our office door: "NO GUNS ALLOWED - unless you have a concealed weapons permit." And many places will not make the “unless . . .” distinction. Live with it. You don’t like it, don’t come to my office. I will NOT put up with a pretend-gunsl at my office. You cannot go onto school premises, you cannot go into a courthouse, you cannot go into federal premises, e.g., a post office, while armed. Live with it.
(5) Unintended consequences.
If one is charged with a domestic assault or battery, it will be much harder to dispose of it without a trial. Police will be wanting to hold down irresponsible people with gun rights. You don’t like it? Too bad. It’s the law. See the second paragraph of this post.
(6) Be polite.
If someone has a gun who has never had one, s/he is more likely to reach for it without understanding the consequences.
Mizpah.
I have always considered that a mega-stupid idea. But now it’s the law. And the strength of America is that we follow the law even when we think it’s stupid.
So let’s consider what we do now:
(1) Get the training anyway.
Many people dislike the NRA. Hell, sometimes I dislike some of the stupid shit the NRA does and I’m a member. But one thing they do right is certify instructors. There is no shortage of instructors who will gladly share their knowledge.
The reason I don’t use a chain saw is simple: I’m not trained. The reason an untrained person should avoid using a gun is the same. You may hurt somebody.
(2) Be prepared for a law enforcement response.
Officers are going to be more careful. They’d be idiots not to be. There will be more dangerous people out there carrying guns. Don’t get all huffy when an officer who doesn’t know you treats you like you may be dangerous. After all, to him/her, you just may be dangerous.
(3) When you encounter an officer, if you are armed tell the officer that you are, and where the gun is. Don’t be surprised if the officer relaxes and you talk about guns. If you have a permit, show it to the officer FIRST. Until you identify whether you have a weapon, the officer HAS to consider that you may be dangerous.
(4) Remember that there are still places you cannot legally go armed.
A person/business can ban guns. Right now, there is a sign on our office door: "NO GUNS ALLOWED - unless you have a concealed weapons permit." And many places will not make the “unless . . .” distinction. Live with it. You don’t like it, don’t come to my office. I will NOT put up with a pretend-gunsl at my office. You cannot go onto school premises, you cannot go into a courthouse, you cannot go into federal premises, e.g., a post office, while armed. Live with it.
(5) Unintended consequences.
If one is charged with a domestic assault or battery, it will be much harder to dispose of it without a trial. Police will be wanting to hold down irresponsible people with gun rights. You don’t like it? Too bad. It’s the law. See the second paragraph of this post.
(6) Be polite.
If someone has a gun who has never had one, s/he is more likely to reach for it without understanding the consequences.
Mizpah.
25 January 2016
Welfare Drug Tests: A Tale of Whose Ox is Gored
There is bipartison support in the West Virginia Legislature for a proposal that welfare recipients be drug tested upon a “reasonable suspicion.”
This is NOT because these people are poor and have zero support in the Legislature. One legislator has called it “a compassionate approach.” Let’s start by acknowledging that State money should not be spent on illegal drugs. It’s offends the people of West Virginia.
But in fact, this proposal is FAR to timid. The proposal doesn’t really touch the drug trade. It’s highly moral, but ineffective as written. We can do better.
About 2,000 welfare (TANF) recipients will be affected. Let’s take a scientific wild guess that this group spends 10% on illegal drugs. That’s the equivalent of 200 welfare checks going to criminals. It is right that we intercept that money.
But the state has 65,000 employees. If they are much more law abiding than TANF recipients, we can take another scientific wild guess that only 1% of their state money goes to criminals. But if that’s so, that’s the equivalent of 650 much larger paychecks going to drug dealers. If we are going to honestly attack the drug trade, let’s really attack it. The State is the biggest employer in West Virginia. The U.S. Government is number two. And U.S. employees make 75% more than people in private industry doing similar jobs. Might we not find that this largely law abiding group is responsible for far more drug profits than welfare people? Surely, we can find reasonable suspicion on some government employees.
And that includes the Legislature.
This is a moral issue. West Virginians don’t want people passing laws who are whacked out on drugs. In 1974, during a legislative session, I was in the bar of the Daniel Boone Hotel. There was a quorum of the West Virginia Senate there, most of whom were intoxicated. In 2015, what is their drug of choice? We have only to test to find out. They have nothing to fear.
Only a druggie has anything to fear from a drug test. One would think that people would be happy to be tested and to take a firm stand against drugs. All that is required of any citizen is that he or she follow the law.
So how about it?
Or is the truth that we really ARE picking on poor people -- just because we can?
Mizpah.
This is NOT because these people are poor and have zero support in the Legislature. One legislator has called it “a compassionate approach.” Let’s start by acknowledging that State money should not be spent on illegal drugs. It’s offends the people of West Virginia.
But in fact, this proposal is FAR to timid. The proposal doesn’t really touch the drug trade. It’s highly moral, but ineffective as written. We can do better.
About 2,000 welfare (TANF) recipients will be affected. Let’s take a scientific wild guess that this group spends 10% on illegal drugs. That’s the equivalent of 200 welfare checks going to criminals. It is right that we intercept that money.
But the state has 65,000 employees. If they are much more law abiding than TANF recipients, we can take another scientific wild guess that only 1% of their state money goes to criminals. But if that’s so, that’s the equivalent of 650 much larger paychecks going to drug dealers. If we are going to honestly attack the drug trade, let’s really attack it. The State is the biggest employer in West Virginia. The U.S. Government is number two. And U.S. employees make 75% more than people in private industry doing similar jobs. Might we not find that this largely law abiding group is responsible for far more drug profits than welfare people? Surely, we can find reasonable suspicion on some government employees.
And that includes the Legislature.
This is a moral issue. West Virginians don’t want people passing laws who are whacked out on drugs. In 1974, during a legislative session, I was in the bar of the Daniel Boone Hotel. There was a quorum of the West Virginia Senate there, most of whom were intoxicated. In 2015, what is their drug of choice? We have only to test to find out. They have nothing to fear.
Only a druggie has anything to fear from a drug test. One would think that people would be happy to be tested and to take a firm stand against drugs. All that is required of any citizen is that he or she follow the law.
So how about it?
Or is the truth that we really ARE picking on poor people -- just because we can?
Mizpah.
22 January 2016
The Church, the Emergency Responders and the Snowy Night
Right now, lots of people are working for all of us, bad though the weather may be. 911 dispatchers, firefighters, EMS people, police officers, water operators, road crews all are on a 12 on/12 off schedule. A meditation from me was recently published by the West Virginia Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ):
from Roger Curry, Diaconal Minister for the Region…
A fire engine passes your church during worship. They are on their way to a fire. How does the congregation react?
Well, the siren and the air horns are LOUD. You might have to pause the service for a few seconds until the din dies down. It’s no more than a minor inconvenience.
Is that it?
May it shouldn’t be.
Years ago, I worked as a paramedic at a busy station. Often, I worked on Sunday. Rescue 20 was located near a large Methodist Church. We had to drive up a side street to the church to turn onto Main Street. Often, we wondered aloud what the people in the service were thinking.
The partner I usually worked with was something of a philosopher. He wondered if the people in the church paused to pray for the person we were going after or for us. And sometimes, he said, hey, they’re in church, but so are we.
The Emergency Services - Fire Departments, Emergency Medical Services, and Police Departments - live the spirit of James:
These people serve all of mankind. They occasionally are in fear when they do it, but they’ll seldom tell anyone about it. Listen on Youtube to the phone messages left by responders on the way to the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Lots of them told their families that they may not survive this call, and that they loved them. And many did not survive. But, knowing that, they still ran into the burning buildings.
This happens on a smaller scale every day. The police officer runs the risk of being shot or having a car wreck. EMS people face diseases, car wrecks and when they are flight medics, they face air crashes. Firefighters risk their lives with fire, and with confined space rescues. When a firefighter enters a burning building, usually the smoke is so thick that s/he’s blind. They’ll only see a faint glow across the room and know where to aim the nozzle. They search for victims by touch and if they need to get out of the building, all they can do is follow the hose. If you are watching a fire and the chauffeurs all start blowing their air horns, that’s the signal that the fire is going badly and for everybody to get out of the building. Then they run a “PAR,” meaning that they have to make sure everybody got out.
They particularly fear emergency calls at a church. A fire in a church is bad. They are usually unoccupied, so they are not noticed until they extend. And a church offers big, open spaces for a fire to extend rapidly.
Many emergency responders do not attend church. Most work at least two jobs - we don’t pay these people very well at all. Some of them, the volunteers, do the work for free.
That does not mean that they are not followers of the Christ of all crises. How can they not be? I’m thinking of things I’ve seen, things my friends have seen and things my son - a firefighter-paramedic - has seen. But I cannot write them down here. Stephen King would find them too upsetting and too disgusting for one of his horror novels. But we as a society, and we as a church, are content with letting these emergency servants deal with what we cannot even think about. Their “day at the office” is not our “day at the office.”
What can we as a church, we as true Disciples of Christ do?
The answer isn’t hard. As a church, we need to do what we have done since the Apostles last saw Jesus in the flesh – Pray. And reach out. When that fire engine passes the church during service, someone is in trouble. They are no doubt waiting and hoping to hear the sounds of sirens, which mean that someone is putting themselves in danger to help.
Somewhere, I heard a prayer:
Perhaps it’s appropriate to pause in the service for that prayer or something like it.
Reach out. There are lots of ways to do that Remember that the people are on duty 24/7/365. Through Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, through floods and snow, police are out patrolling. In fire and rescue stations, the trucks stand in a quiet garage with their doors open, helmets on the seats and a coat on the door. Day or night, when a call is dispatched, in less than a minute, you can see the lights go on, the doors go up and the first truck “bust the doors.”
Do you ever visit these people? Actually, they are very nice and they LIKE visitors. They like people to express an interest in them and in what they do. They are proud people. These are caring people. And so seldom does anyone they help ever thank them. I still remember that 30 years ago, our station getting a card from a patient. I even remember his name, Leroy from Chicago. Leroy rolled his semi- over a hill and was badly injured and trapped in the truck. His letter was so heartfelt and so unusual that we all still remember it.
It’s sad that this is so rare. A few years ago, a huge 1920's country club building caught on fire late one evening. It was in an area served by a volunteer fire department. Ultimately, it went to four alarms and ten fire departments were working. Several firefighters were hurt, one seriously when a wall collapsed. The volunteers were there till late the next morning. What do they most remember about that fire? That nobody thanked them.
It doesn’t take much. A “Thank you,” or “We’re glad you’re on the job,” goes a long way. On a hot afternoon, when you see a police officer directing traffic you might ask, What would Jesus do? Well, he might stop at the convenience store and drop off a bottle of iced tea to the officer. At a winter DUI checkpoint, I’ve seen police officers act like kids on Christmas when someone drops off a tray of coffee from McDonald’s.
Invite these people into the house of the Lord. Those who travel the streets need to know where they can go to the bathroom or maybe get a cup of coffee. In the Middle Ages, a church was a sanctuary. There’s no reason it cannot be now. Call the Chief of the Department and offer. It will be appreciated.
When you have a special service or a dinner, go down to your local fire station or rescue station, and tell them that they are welcome. Tell the police officer assigned to that part of town that they are welcome. And then make them FEEL welcome. All you have to do is provide a parking place for the fire trucks in case they need to leave in a hurry. (Warning: These are young and very active people. They burn a lot of calories.)
And keep reaching out. Give these people your time. Time to know you. Time to see that you are on their side and that you appreciate them. Time to listen as they s-l-o-w-l-y begin to open up to you. The emergency responders are a special group of “the least of these” whom Christ told us to care for.
By and large, these people follow the dictates of some religion. Many are Christian, many follow Jesus the Christ. If you doubt that, go to one of their service funerals. At the end of a service funeral, the service of the Last Alarm is conducted, sometimes called “the Last Call.” You can find lots of examples on Youtube. The dispatchers clear a radio frequency, and announce that this is the Last Call for Paramedic Mary Jones. The dispatcher calls her on the radio: “Dispatch to Unit342.” Silence. “Dispatch to Unit 342." Silence. “This is the Last Call for Unit 342, Paramedic Mary Jones. She does not answer. She is now serving the Lord. We love you, Mary.” And then, turn and look at the people who are in uniform. And you will see God.
Mizpah.
from Roger Curry, Diaconal Minister for the Region…
A fire engine passes your church during worship. They are on their way to a fire. How does the congregation react?
Well, the siren and the air horns are LOUD. You might have to pause the service for a few seconds until the din dies down. It’s no more than a minor inconvenience.
Is that it?
May it shouldn’t be.
Years ago, I worked as a paramedic at a busy station. Often, I worked on Sunday. Rescue 20 was located near a large Methodist Church. We had to drive up a side street to the church to turn onto Main Street. Often, we wondered aloud what the people in the service were thinking.
The partner I usually worked with was something of a philosopher. He wondered if the people in the church paused to pray for the person we were going after or for us. And sometimes, he said, hey, they’re in church, but so are we.
The Emergency Services - Fire Departments, Emergency Medical Services, and Police Departments - live the spirit of James:
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
James 2:14 - 17, NASB
These people serve all of mankind. They occasionally are in fear when they do it, but they’ll seldom tell anyone about it. Listen on Youtube to the phone messages left by responders on the way to the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Lots of them told their families that they may not survive this call, and that they loved them. And many did not survive. But, knowing that, they still ran into the burning buildings.
This happens on a smaller scale every day. The police officer runs the risk of being shot or having a car wreck. EMS people face diseases, car wrecks and when they are flight medics, they face air crashes. Firefighters risk their lives with fire, and with confined space rescues. When a firefighter enters a burning building, usually the smoke is so thick that s/he’s blind. They’ll only see a faint glow across the room and know where to aim the nozzle. They search for victims by touch and if they need to get out of the building, all they can do is follow the hose. If you are watching a fire and the chauffeurs all start blowing their air horns, that’s the signal that the fire is going badly and for everybody to get out of the building. Then they run a “PAR,” meaning that they have to make sure everybody got out.
They particularly fear emergency calls at a church. A fire in a church is bad. They are usually unoccupied, so they are not noticed until they extend. And a church offers big, open spaces for a fire to extend rapidly.
Many emergency responders do not attend church. Most work at least two jobs - we don’t pay these people very well at all. Some of them, the volunteers, do the work for free.
That does not mean that they are not followers of the Christ of all crises. How can they not be? I’m thinking of things I’ve seen, things my friends have seen and things my son - a firefighter-paramedic - has seen. But I cannot write them down here. Stephen King would find them too upsetting and too disgusting for one of his horror novels. But we as a society, and we as a church, are content with letting these emergency servants deal with what we cannot even think about. Their “day at the office” is not our “day at the office.”
What can we as a church, we as true Disciples of Christ do?
The answer isn’t hard. As a church, we need to do what we have done since the Apostles last saw Jesus in the flesh – Pray. And reach out. When that fire engine passes the church during service, someone is in trouble. They are no doubt waiting and hoping to hear the sounds of sirens, which mean that someone is putting themselves in danger to help.
Somewhere, I heard a prayer:
The sounds of a siren.
Someone’s in trouble.
God have mercy.
The sounds of a siren.
Help is on the way.
Thanks be to God.
Perhaps it’s appropriate to pause in the service for that prayer or something like it.
Reach out. There are lots of ways to do that Remember that the people are on duty 24/7/365. Through Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, through floods and snow, police are out patrolling. In fire and rescue stations, the trucks stand in a quiet garage with their doors open, helmets on the seats and a coat on the door. Day or night, when a call is dispatched, in less than a minute, you can see the lights go on, the doors go up and the first truck “bust the doors.”
Do you ever visit these people? Actually, they are very nice and they LIKE visitors. They like people to express an interest in them and in what they do. They are proud people. These are caring people. And so seldom does anyone they help ever thank them. I still remember that 30 years ago, our station getting a card from a patient. I even remember his name, Leroy from Chicago. Leroy rolled his semi- over a hill and was badly injured and trapped in the truck. His letter was so heartfelt and so unusual that we all still remember it.
It’s sad that this is so rare. A few years ago, a huge 1920's country club building caught on fire late one evening. It was in an area served by a volunteer fire department. Ultimately, it went to four alarms and ten fire departments were working. Several firefighters were hurt, one seriously when a wall collapsed. The volunteers were there till late the next morning. What do they most remember about that fire? That nobody thanked them.
It doesn’t take much. A “Thank you,” or “We’re glad you’re on the job,” goes a long way. On a hot afternoon, when you see a police officer directing traffic you might ask, What would Jesus do? Well, he might stop at the convenience store and drop off a bottle of iced tea to the officer. At a winter DUI checkpoint, I’ve seen police officers act like kids on Christmas when someone drops off a tray of coffee from McDonald’s.
Invite these people into the house of the Lord. Those who travel the streets need to know where they can go to the bathroom or maybe get a cup of coffee. In the Middle Ages, a church was a sanctuary. There’s no reason it cannot be now. Call the Chief of the Department and offer. It will be appreciated.
When you have a special service or a dinner, go down to your local fire station or rescue station, and tell them that they are welcome. Tell the police officer assigned to that part of town that they are welcome. And then make them FEEL welcome. All you have to do is provide a parking place for the fire trucks in case they need to leave in a hurry. (Warning: These are young and very active people. They burn a lot of calories.)
And keep reaching out. Give these people your time. Time to know you. Time to see that you are on their side and that you appreciate them. Time to listen as they s-l-o-w-l-y begin to open up to you. The emergency responders are a special group of “the least of these” whom Christ told us to care for.
By and large, these people follow the dictates of some religion. Many are Christian, many follow Jesus the Christ. If you doubt that, go to one of their service funerals. At the end of a service funeral, the service of the Last Alarm is conducted, sometimes called “the Last Call.” You can find lots of examples on Youtube. The dispatchers clear a radio frequency, and announce that this is the Last Call for Paramedic Mary Jones. The dispatcher calls her on the radio: “Dispatch to Unit342.” Silence. “Dispatch to Unit 342." Silence. “This is the Last Call for Unit 342, Paramedic Mary Jones. She does not answer. She is now serving the Lord. We love you, Mary.” And then, turn and look at the people who are in uniform. And you will see God.
Mizpah.
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