Goodwill toward men

The American System is under attack yet again. For many years now, as a beacon of hope and freedom in the Western World, we’ve had a policy of allowing criminals to pay their debt to society. Guilt or innocence is determined by an unbiased court and jury. But that system - as fair and equitable as it is - is not enough, it seems, to serve “justice” in this great land.

A popular “news anchor” on a cable network has said that a man, who served the prescribed time in prison for his crime of animal abuse, should have been executed for his crime. And then, when our Nation’s leader thanked that ex-con’s employer for giving him a second chance, our Nation’s leader was attacked by the “news anchor” as, in short, being amoral or some such thing.

Animal abuse is a terrible thing. What’s worse? Domestic assault. Still worse? Not any of those acts themselves, but the bad education they give to children. Yes, it isn’t that children are exposed to terrible acts, but they are taught by them. Teaching a child that it is fair to hit your wife during an argument is about the most despicable thing that I can imagine. So, would that “news anchor” believe that such a man that struck a woman in front of children should be executed? Doubtful.

We should consider, quickly, what would happen if the beliefs of this “news anchor” were put into effect. Well, it’s hard to tell, exactly, since the “argument” he makes is generally hyperbole only and has no real structure. But I’ll guess that it would be impossible to pay a debt for past crimes. We’d have to assume that people couldn’t change. Once a sinner, always a sinner… After spending some time in jail, people would be released to be shunned by society, unable to get a job, and would subsist through welfare. Or starve.

I think this is a teachable moment. What I’ve learned is that we should require television personalities to write a short essay of five paragraphs to explain their position every time they choose to speak in hyperbole to strike an emotional chord instead of facilitating real discussion. And this essay should be able to get at least a B in a ninth grade English class.

　

Impetus and the Follow-through

Many years ago, I was close to a path that could lead to the practice of medicine and my friend was on a path to working day-to-day in industry. Those paths were launched when we were young adults. No longer are we young adults. We aren't elderly, either. That means that we're just plain adults. What a bore.
At some point while we were traveling down those paths, we switched. I am an Industrialist, so to speak, working five days a week on first shift, and my friend works countless hours at ungodly times in a hospital, keeping people breathing as long as possible.
As we traveled down our paths toward adulthood, my friend did a much more effective job at raising a family than I. He has a beautiful child and an incredibly patient and forgiving wife. That last part is important to this story.
Something that comes with being an adult is that partying, as we used to call it, is no longer a thrill. My friend and I have never really been all that into things like skiing, skydiving, or any other sort of traditional weekend-warrior nonsense either. Speaking only for myself, I have become a bore entirely. Weekends are housework or gardening, as all of my faithful readers are aware. And then…
During one unholy pre-dawn hour in the hospital, following, I'm sure, a long day of caring for a baby, my friend wrote me an email. That email laid out the groundwork for the next year of our lives. It said something to the effect of:
"Want to do a primitive flintlock hunt in the mountains of Pennsylvania during the coldest period of 2012?" Not owning a flintlock and having never hunted, I naturally answered, "yes."
The difference between a good idea and a revolution is commitment. Within two weeks of that email, we had, in hand, a new camp stove and a 10' x 12' wall tent on order. With that $700 spent and no legal or ethical way to retrieve it, we have started the clock on the one-year countdown to the most money we've ever spent on an activity that is doomed to failure. Am I being pessimistic or are we truly this misguided?
Today, we fired off a flintlock for the first time in our lives. We're jumpy, often confused, and laughed for three hours with wide-eyed, childlike glee that usually is reserved for the opening scenes of horror movies. If we are to have designs on walking – or at least limping – out of the frozen forest alive, our only hope is practice. The clock is running…

A Peaceful Day

Regardless of your beliefs, history, or memories, I hope that we all can find the strength today to take a step toward a lasting, global peace.

Merry Christmas.

How do you solve a problem?

Somewhat famously, Pres. Obama stated that the healthcare issue in the United States was a test to see if Americans could still solve big problems. The problem he was referring to is that healthcare costs a relatively high percentage of our GDP. This is money that could otherwise go to reinvigorating infrastructure, educating children, our buying a new stand mixer for every kitchen in the country.

If that was the problem, what have we, as a Nation, solved? According to what I hear on the news, nothing. What we did do, according to the news, is try a socialist takeover of the country, skewed the marketplace, gave a windfall to drug companies (if the reporting is on Network A), screwed the drug companies and innovation (if the reporting is on Network B), or a whole bunch of other stuff. None of what is reported on answers the question “how do we stop spending money on healthcare so we can spend it on other items?” If we’re not answering that question, why report it?

And here is my hang-up for today: there isn’t enough news to fill a 24 hour news cycle. There is more than enough stuff that happens to talk incessantly for 24 hours, babbling like the idiot in the back seat that insists on reading every billboard and road sign to you as you drive down Interstate 94 toward Chicago… but that isn’t news, is it?

Our country’s legislature just came back from a break. Over that break, on every newscast on any network talked at length about the Republican desire to overturn the healthcare bill. That was a month. One whole month of talking about what a group of people wanted to do. They were contemplating, planning and scheming on how to do it. But they couldn’t. Why? Congress was not in session, that’s why! We talked for a full month for a brief period every hour in the 24 hour news cycle about something that people wanted to do.

In that time, we kept fighting a war in the Middle East.

Celebration of the Land

This week, dear Readers, I realized that Thanksgiving is fast upon us. More so than any religious holiday, which celebrate ideas, or the 4th of July, which celebrates our Nation, Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. All Americans celebrate together the very ground that sustains us, the fresh water that is available to us, and the big sky that inspires us.

As we turn to this holiday, I ask of all of us to understand what we are celebrating and think about what we’re doing to help sustain it.

I’m off to hike Hawk Mountain. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Nice Things About Society

A few nights ago, I walked home from the bar. It was dark. I passed a single girl walking down the street. So, I don’t know if everyone here knows what ye ol’ Suburban Farmer looks like, but I have long hair and a beard, which isn’t exactly the norm for my neighborhood. We both felt safe enough, I suppose.

Every day, I go to bed in my house, which doesn’t have bars on the windows. Also, though I do think we all have the right to own a gun, I don’t believe I should own a whole bunch as they are the only justice I can count on.

See, we live in a Society (capital S). I really like having a government that pays for public utilities and services. Tonight, I fear that a majority of Americans may have forgotten that Society isn’t something that we always have, but something for which we have to pay.

I wonder who we’ll blame in 2014.

More Unacceptable Terms

Two more to cut out:

1) Competitive District

2) Polls indicate…

Here we are on the eve of the election. There have been two terms that have been shouted over and over again - to the detriment of the American people. Let’s do away with these…

“Competitive District” sounds simple enough. There are a lot of competitive districts this year. Many are generally right-leaning that may go left, others are the opposite. But in all cases I‘ve seen, it is the candidates that are competing, not any stance or belief. Those competitive districts are those that have the most to lose - or have already lost a lot - and are full of tense and terrified voters. So to get the vote, every dig at the opposition is taken and every opportunity to describe personal beliefs is shunned. In this way, the People have a popularity contest, masked by the notion that a serious public discourse is taking place. The voters are not all sitting in public meeting houses, convincing their neighbors that, indeed, the bailouts prevented worse job loses or some other important topic. Each voter is betting on which candidate will take the least from him or her, period.

And it is these people that make up the polls. The most useful poll is a sort of quiz, asking voters “what is the name of your governor?” That kind of data really shows something. You could also ask “is evolution real?” Both of these questions have a right answer. All governors have names and evolution (in one form or another) is absolutely real. Now, if 50% of a state missed the first question, the schools would start to focus on facts like that a bit more, I think. If 50% of a group missed the second one, a candidate would say “and this shows that American’s don’t want to accept this heresy!” Having a poll show that popular opinion says X doesn’t make X a fact. That subtlety has been lost along the way, often, and is embarrassing to me.

Thus, I soldier forth into tomorrow very worried. This damage will keep getting worse for awhile still. I’m guessing another 25 years.