Counting Illegal Aliens; Dull, dull, dull? But Important.

An interesting dilemma has appeared with the 2020 census.  Do we count illegal aliens, people who – according to law – should not be in the country?

The President just directed the census not to count illegal aliens.

The census gives important direction to government.  The U. S. government is the biggest employer and purchaser in the United States.   Where government money is spent or allocated depends partly on the census figures.  It counts both for numbers of people and what particular things different areas need.  It  may be, for example, that there are more unemployed and disabled people in Eastern Kentucky than on Long Island.  Knowing that gives a government that cares some direction.

Also, census numbers control the numbers of states’ seats in the House of Representatives.  Every state has two senators.  And every state has at least one Representative.    The House membership is capped by law at 435.  (This is a law, not part of the Constitution.) 

One-person-one-vote is a part of Constitutional law.  If a Congressional District differs from another in the same state by 1% population, it will be voided because it violates one-person-one-vote.  Bear that in mind.  Now it gets odd.

Montana has about 1,050,000 people.  A similar state in population is Rhode Island, which has 1,059,000 people.   The “Average” congressional district based on the 2010 census is 747,000.

Montana has one Representative.

Rhode Island has two Representatives. 

So a Montanan’s votes count for half what a Rhode Islandite’s does.

So, by counting illegal aliens, we are affecting both where the money goes and the power of votes in that state. 

The arguments:

Illegal aliens are people, too.  And they are here.  Some of them have a good (if illegal) reason to be here.  If they go to the hospital with a heart attack, they are not going to be turned away.

Illegal aliens are here, well, illegally.   Counting them detracts  tax money from the citizens who pay it and affects the citizens power to vote.  (It is a false notion that the inclusion always favors one party.  It all depends on where they are counted.)

So much for balancing the arguments as best I can.  I think we should not count them.  We cannot ignore illegality and keep functioning as a society. 

I further believe that if we don’t get a smooth and not-too-difficult path to responsible citizenship for current aliens, we need to dismantle the Statue of Liberty.  The poetry is starting to ring false:  “Give me your tired, your poor; Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your teaming shore: Send them – The homeless tempest tossed to me.  I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door.”

I wonder:  Can we have a rational discussion without damning the ones who don't agree wth us?

Mizpah!

No, I did not have to look up the poetry.  If I got it wrong, I can live with that.  R

Executing Bad Guys versus the Dustbin of History; A Polemic

The U.S. government hasn’t executed anyone in several years, until this week.  So far, the BOP has executed two people.

Both had been convicted of heinous murders.  Both were convicted many years ago.  One is an Alzheimer’s patient and is arguably so badly affected that he doesn’t know why he’s getting executed.

The fact that these guys will die at some point doesn’t really bother me.  After all, they are human and mortality is in their future.  That they have died this week or others in their situation may die next week doesn’t compare to my feeling about many others, most younger, who have died this week. 

Maybe I’m too practical about life and death.  Certainly, some think so.  And that’s okay with me.  I have a “reputation” that varies with as many people who know me or who know or think they know anything about me. 

The death penalty continues to make no sense to me.

A person currently subject of a death penalty has proven himself unfit to live among us.  (I use “him” advisedly.”  By far, most people who truly earn the death penalty are men.  I have my belief as to why, but I do know that the fact is true, no matter why.)  Therefore, in a fair and just society, we need to separate that person from us. 

How we separate them causes endless discussion.  Do we need to punish them for doing evil?  That’s an area where both religious and humanist thought coincide.   No, we don’t need to express the “evil” of revenge against the evildoers.  (“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” which is trite but true.  Lots of trite sayings are nevertheless accurate.) 

There is the possibility that the death penalty will be applied unfairly and inconsistently.  There is the possibility that it will be applied based on race, religion or lack thereof, economic circumstance or other things unrelated to what the person did. 

Now – If you say, “Damn right, [this group] is FAR more like to be executed and it’s unfair . . .”, you have missed the point.  It doesn’t matter that a particular bunch of people are subject of abuse.   What matters is that it is possible that ANY particular group MAY BE subject of abuse, because when you leave the POSSIBILITY that, say Methodists will be killed more than Buddhists, it WILL happen to some Methodists.  We cannot trust people in power, we never have, and that’s the nature of power.  Methodist power, Hispanic power, Buddhist power, redneck power, any-darn-thing power, it’s all the same.  You don’t need to prove that it’s happening, that it can happen makes it inevitable to happen.

How does it happen?  Well, by people who think that they are being “right.”  Of course a Methodist is more likely to kill people, don’t we all know that?  So I’m enforcing GOD’S WILL by executing them.  Or Humanity’s will. Or Odin’s will.  Or just MY will.   (Sorry, Monty and Jim - God told me.)

It is possible – and that means it has probably happened – that we’ll kill the wrong person.  Oops.  But they are still dead and it’s too late to change that.  It’s VERY unlikely with all of the safeguards we have today, but still possible.  I remember the doctrine of “murder by perjury,” which has been known to convict murderers who testified that somebody else killed a person when really they didn’t.  Then, the murder-by-perjury person was duly executed, which did nothing for the victim.  They were still dead. 

That’s really the basic point.  Not everybody understands it.  Listen:  When you execute somebody, they are dead.  They have quit breathing and their heart has stopped.  There is no replay button in life.  Some say that it’s doesn’t matter, because if someone dies, they go to the reward that they earned while they live.  Heck, I believe that.  I “know” it’s true.  But if you come to kill me, expect a fight.  I’m not ready yet. 

And it’s also possible that the death penalty will be applied inconsistently.  Unless we kill every murderer – which we don’t – it is inevitable that the death penalty be applied inconsistently.  Simply inevitable. 

So what it the answer?  Ooh, that’s sounds like a trick question.  I do so hate to come up with “an answer,” meaning the one-and-only-answer that God/The Force/Whoever inspired me to think of.  (Hmm – should I grow my beard longer to look like an Old Testament Prophet?) 

I think AN answer is to use The Dustbin of History.  John Wayne Gacy has been executed.  But if he hadn’t, he would still be in prison forever and thereby consigned to the Dustbin of History. 

We are ALL consigned to the Dustbin of History eventually.  According to a Google search – so we know it’s true – 108 billion humans have existed.  Something like 6 billions are alive, so every person has 17-some ghosts behind them.  Years ago, Arthur C. Clarke estimated 30-some ghosts behind people in the 1960’s.  Anyway, more people have lived than are living today.  How many of them do you remember?

I remember my 6-times great-grandfather, Jonathan Currey, who alighted in Hampton Roads, Virginia, as an indentured servant in 1649.  That’s all I know about him and I couldn’t pick him out of a line-up. I have 1/256^th of his DNA, so he probably didn’t look like me.  Knowing that he existed is not like mourning him more than anyone else on his ship.  We remember Alexander the Great, Augustus Caesar, Plato, and maybe a couple of thousand other people who are dead.  The rest?  Dustbin of History.

I don’t want to see John Wayne Gacy move in next door.  We need the Dustbin of History for him even when he’s still alive.  You don’t need to punish him, being on the Dustbin of History already does that.  Give him air conditioning and a TV, shut the door to his cell, and go about your own life.  He has chosen his.  His victims are not helped, not brought justice, by doing anything else.

In other words – We need to keep our eye on the ball.  And “the ball” is what matter in the future.

Mizpah!

Who Will Respond to 911 Calls?

650,000 calls are made to 911 every day.  People who call think they need somebody more knowledgeable, more skilled or stronger than they are to deal with some situation.  Most of them are right.  And somebody goes to the caller to see what’s going on.

Most calls are for the police.  Many are for emergency services, usually fire and EMS.  Sometimes, all three services respond.  That's normal life for people in those jobs.

The current civil unrest mostly is directed at the police.  Where it will turn out, we don’t know.  It has also been directed at fire and EMS, where they have been blocked from attending an emergency scene.  The frequency of that is disputed, and all we know is that it has happened on occasion. 

It is the adult thing to do to prepare for bad things which happen.  Doing so requires that you ask, “What can happen?," "How likely is it?," "What is the worst effect if it happens?" and “When it does, what will we do?”   The first three questions help planners allocate scarce resources.  Something which is unlike to happen and which, if it does, will cause minimal loss, gets put to the bottom of the list.  If it happens often or if it does, it will really harm people are dealt with more urgently.  If it happens often and the effects are bad, we are not worthy of the name "public servants" if we don't prepare for the event.

Those who support police – and others – want to know what will happen in the future when they hear someone breaking into the house in the middle of the night.  The opponents of policing as we know do it now that question “waving the bloody shirt” – which it is, at least a little bit – and avoiding the fundamental question of policing.

But that sort of call to 911 DOES happen constantly.  Society exists to keep everybody as safe as reasonable.  So, what will we do?  That’s a legitimate question, no matter where one stands on policing.  Not many burglars will leave one group alone based on who they are or what they believe.  If you say that it will more probably happen to the other person, you may be right. Or may not.  Beats me.  But when it happens to you, it happens 100% and probabilities no longer matter.  You will have help or you will face it on your own. 

Why do people break into houses in the night?

That’s a trick question.  That’s unknowable by the victim of the break-in.  All the victim can do is assume – and try to avoid – the worst.  On the extreme-less-dangerous side, maybe the “burglar” is somebody confused or drunk, who thinks it’s their house and they don't have their keys.  They are not a big danger.  Or, it may be a burglar/killer seeking money or valuables who is willing to kill or violently stop whoever interferes.  That happens.  One guy I once represented killed a neighbor who came to investigate when he burgled a house.  (I represented him on a different murder.)  The victim doesn’t know which person that is, or whether they plan on committing sexual assault, arson, murder or merely theft. 

Currently, we have an agency that deals with immediate needs, the police.  Arms are endemic in this society and will always be possibly present whether they are outlawed or not.  So, we arm the police so that they will be at least as forceful as the potential burglar.  When we arm them, we have to trust them.  Even if the police do something excessive or even plainly wrong will only be addressed after the event is concluded.  The Minneapolis police killing and the Atlanta police killing are different at least in degree, but both guys are still dead and we can’t change that.  As a society, we can only fix what is wrong so that it doesn't happen again.

So the question remains, how do we deal with the burglar.   It WILL happen tonight, and every night in the foreseeable future.  We are prepared to debate how we should have been more ready for a statistically-improbable pandemic.  But the pandemic happened, so the issue is debatable and current.  We know owner-present burglaries will happen.

People talk about approaching policing (or whatever you would call it) from a sociological standpoint.  Police proponents pooh-pooh that idea as being dangerously weak.  Immediately, they may be right.  You can’t reason successfully always with an armed burglar.  Moreover, a police officer has to be right every time to avoid being shot some night.  If only 1% of burglars are armed and dangerous, and officer will last on an average of a few years.  Ultimately, maybe it’s an improvement to deal sociologically – just not while the burglar is still armed.

Also - oddly - the police also protect the burglar or supposed-burglar from being shot by a homeowner.  The police do not come to work hoping to pull and fire a weapon.  They want a quiet night or at least where everybody goes home.  If the police call on you to raise your hands, the smart move is to comply.

So, what will we do when someone calls 911?

911 centers operate by “cook books.”  That means that when you call with a certain type of need in a certain area, the operator physically or mentally calls up a “cook book,” which tells the operator how to handle the call – Who to call on the radio, what to tell the caller what to do in the meantime, and so forth.  What will the cook book say in the future? 

If the answer is, “You’re on your own,” let’s at least be honest with the caller.  What effect will that have?  We’ll lose more callers to violence.  We’ll lose more burglars to gunfire.  And we’ll lose more supposed-but-not-actual burglars by misplaced gunfire.  If we are willing to do that, we have the power to declare that’s the way things will go.

Nor ordering more respirators, not being more ready for an unlikely pandemic has had effects on society.  Drastic effects.  Not preparing for stuff that happens all the time also will have drastic effects.  We need to decide.  And a decision put off is still a decision in itself.

Mizpah!

That Elusive Garden of American Heroes

The President announced at a speech at Mt. Rushmore Friday night that he has signed an Executive Order creating a “National Garden of American Heroes.”  He proposes including:

John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison,  James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, Antonin Scalia, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright

[See Note 1]

As I read the list, I’m familiar in a general sense with everyone, and know a lot about the bio’s of about half.  Based on this, I can see people where were physically brave and proved it; who were socially/philosophically brave and proved it; were kind and proved it; were in a minority then but as we see now, were simply talking good and obvious sense; scholars  (mostly unacknowledged); and people who stuck to their guns when they “knew” they were right.

[“And proved it” – See Note 2]

I can also see at least two people who had rare religious beliefs (protected by the First Amendment) in reincarnation; at least three people who owned slaves; at least three people whose careers may be true more in myth and legend  than facts; at least three people who had a huge positive effect on American life, two of whom are not really acknowledged; several people who functioned with what we now call mental illness; some shameless self-promoters; and people who are reputed and may actually have believed things that were unpopular at the time and are abhorrent now.  Nope, I’m not going to call names.  And most readers’ lists will be a tad different from mine. 

Were I a committee of one charged with making the list, some of the same people would be on my list, others wouldn’t, and I would come up with at least 100 additional names to be included. After all, there is no shortage of American heroes.

Let me rattle them off.   And no, this is not in order of importance. In fact, I don’t think I could put them in any surd order:

Cesar Chavez.

Neil Armstrong. It’s not because just because he landed on the moon by hand when the computer was aiming for a crater, but for saving Gemini 8 when the attitude control rockets malfunctioned and put it into a near-fatal spin.

George Washington Carver.

Albert Einstein.

Poncho Carter.

Simon Kenton.

Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Dulles brothers.

George H. W. Bush

Bill Clinton. Eight years of prosperity and peace does count.

Margaret Chase Smith.

Sandra O’Day Connor.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

John Quincy Adams

William Howard Taft.

Thurgood Marshall.

Earl Warren.

Barry Goldwater.

Lyndon Johnson. Vietnam killed him but he is responsible for the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act.

Franklin Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt.

Gayle Sayers.

Pat Brown.

Harley Earl.

Henry J. Kaiser.

John L Lewis. A small personal connection. Oce Worthington Smith, Jr., knew him and told me about his stories of working in the early coal mines.

Eugene Debs.

Bo Jackson.

Sitting Bull.

Crazy Horse.

Chief Joseph.

Russell Means.

Sacajawea.

Schuyler Colfax.

Sam Houston.

Jeannette Rankin.

Thomas Paine.

Ernest Hemingway.

Pearl Buck.

Geraldine Ferraro.

Daniel Carter Beard.

Carl Sagan.

John Marshall.

John Jay.

George W. DeLong.

George Melville.

Herman Melville.

Bill Harcourt.

Cornel West.

Lewis and Clarke.

Hugh Glass.

Jack Johnson.

Ransom E. Olds.

William O. Douglas.

Robert Jackson.

Winfield Scott Hancock.

John Hancock.

Richard Henry Dana.

Ayn Rand.

Danny Thomas.

Burl Ives.

William Seward.

Henry Belafonte.

Mary Travers.

Peter Schickele.

Phillip Glass.

Virgil Fox.

Y. A. Tittle.

Colin Powell.

Barbara Jordan.

Elmo Zumwalt.

Juliete Gordon Low.

Thomas Edison.

Nikola Tesla.

Jock Yablonski.

Shirley Chisholm.

James Brown.

Adam Clayton Powell.

Everett Dirkson.

Milton L. Olive, III.  Years ago, I met one of the people he saved.

Andrew Carnegie.  I remember fondly all of the time I spent in my high school days in the Carnegie Library.

Matthew M. Neely.  Among other things, he founded the National Cancer Institute.

John Muir.

David Hackworth.

Henry A. Wallace.

Eliot Ness.

Betty Ford.

Harry Truman.

Gene Autry.

Louisa May Alcott.

Chris Kraft.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Ernest Thompson Seton.

Louis Brandeis.

There, that’s about 100.

They also include:

Everybody who invaded Normandy.

The 500 – or so – firefighters, police, EMS people and semi- or untrained people who nevertheless gave their lives in the September 11 attacks helping others. Heck, about the 50,000 to 100,000 who directly served on those scenes.  (I wish I could put an “irregardless” in there to match the “nevertheless,” but I can’t figure out how.)

How about every firefighter who has stayed just a little bit too long in a burning building and who their buddies have had to “put out” when they came out. (Tim is one.)

People who had been attacked and killed based on race or beliefs or a wrongful conviction.

People who have served nation and community faithfully without doing some particular thing “bravely” but have worked midnight shift, Christmas, showed up to work sick, and without ever being thanked.

Miners with black lung and other respiratory diseases. Or miners who have blown their back out on the job.

This is the list which I came up with off to top of my head.  I really do hope that you disagree – maybe violently – with my list.  That’s the whole idea.  One person’s hero is another person’s jerk.  

How do we pick  the people to be honored?

Well, there is politics.  OK, the issue is to be decided by Congress.  They take it to the House of Representatives.  The Chair of the Appropriations Committee [used to be Bro. Alan B. Mollohan, I’ve no idea who holds the position now – and I’m too lazy to look] is an admirer of police and bank robbers.  So s/he wants the Garden to include Wyatt Earp and John Dillinger.  S/he won’t let it out of Committee if it doesn’t include those two.  That each is prominent in his field is self-apparent – I don’t need to tell readers of these Dispatches who they were.  Let’s assume that most folks wouldn’t want Earp and Dillinger included.  Is the Chair “right” in seeking their inclusion?  Is it “right” either to make a deal with the chair and include them or to refuse and cancel or delay the whole project?

The answer is:  [Drum roll] I don’t know.

Trusting the answer to the political process seems foolhardy.

How about a commission.  As long as it includes me.  It probably won’t.  Darn.

How about a vote on the internet.  That might be fair, as long as we was frequent and included lots of heroes. 

Maybe the Garden, wherever it is at, contained sites which could be easily swapped out.  Maybe a 1,000 plus possible who are changed weekly, randomly or with a schedule.  Perhaps that would attract people to visit repeatedly.  Or maybe the visitors would be mainly wonky.  Well, Wonky Person Liberation.

Mizpah!

Note 1 – How the President can do this without any action of Congress is unclear to me.  The Courts have let him transfer funding authorized for the Department of Defense to build the border wall.  The Constitution provides that Congress has to appropriate money and that has to originate in the House of Representatives. 

Note 2 – “And they proved it.”  Many Christians (and many non-Christians] find wisdom in the New Testament.  Thomas Jefferson – possibly a deist, but we’re not sure – prepared with scissors and glue “the Jefferson Bible” which was shorn of miracles and other supernatural influences, but contained the “wisdom,” including most of the parables.) A book which particularly speaks to me is the Book of James:

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ!  Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup? Where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can always already hear one of you saying, “Sounds good. You keep take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you profess to believe the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

James, “The Message” translation.