A change in the air

September 23, 2021September 22, 2021Michael 5 Comments

Once upon a time they lived happily ever after (1) Yesterday was first day of Autumn. Or today. Today is the first full day of Autumn. The distinction is most likely only important to whichever weather person was on air yesterday versus who is on air today. Either yesterday or today you must have noticed the difference when you woke up? The trees are now covered with bright colorful leaves, pumpkins are lining all the by-ways, there’s a smell of warm apple cider in the air, and that air is decidedly cooler than it was yesterday with decidedly fewer daylight hours. Well, maybe not quite. In truth there isn’t much difference between summer and fall if yesterday and tomorrow are the comparisons. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, just read this paragraph backwards. There’s not much change between the last day of Winter and the first of Spring either. Seasons just don’t change that quickly.

In truth, any change seldom happens quickly, but it happens. And it happens inexorably. Things you barely notice from day to day add up so over time the change becomes monumental. Take yourself for example. You likely are not noticeably different than you were yesterday, maybe not from last week, perhaps even barely noticeably different from last year. But compared to five years ago, ten years, twenty years…the change is remarkable.

Something that rarely changes is our desire not to change. Almost everybody prefers the familiarity of now to the point they would choose a future to be no different than the now. Except now. Our “now” is taking a great toll on us. It is a hard now that we’d gladly change for calmer times. Unfortunately, those calmer times may come with their own set of peril. To me, Eden is the fictional town of Mayfield were the Cleavers raised their two sons, a few miles from Bryant Park where Uncle Charlie helped Steve Douglass raise his three sons, which isn’t so far from the Springfield were Jim Anderson knew best how he and Margaret would raise their two daughters bookended around their only son. Springfield barely changed from week to week yet somehow, it’s unrecognizable now when Homer and Marge struggle with their brood. I’d rather live in the Springfield of the fifties, the Mayfield or Bryant Park of the sixties, than the 21^st century Springfield or any other model community even if it meant living in a politically incorrect time of two genders, people advancing on merit, family values, and inter-generational respect.

So, now you’re going to ask, what about segregation, marginalization, anti-Semitism, homophobia, the Cold War, and inner-city gangs? So, now I will ask you, why are all those still going on? Last week a young man in a Pittsburgh, PA suburb shot three people at a baby shower, for his expected child by the way, over an argument of who would transport the gifts from the venue to the home. Over 4500 Asian hate crimes were reported in the first seven months of 2021. In one week in May 2021, the Anti-Defamation League found more than 17,000 tweets using variations of the phrase “Hitler was right.” Violent crimes against the marginalized group of hearing, visually, and physically challenged persons are more than double for non-challenged males and over three times as prevalent against women versus their non-challenged counterpart. Just last month, the Associated Price reported that a parent barged into his daughter’s elementary school in Northern California and punched a teacher in the face, sending him to an emergency room, over mask rules. So, I ask those who say my idyll is a paradise for only the privileged white male, how they would like to respond to these.

Ah yes, there is a change in the air. If we could only tell which way the wind will blow next.

Go to the Tape

March 29, 2021Michael 4 Comments

Do you ever wonder why? Just – Why, Huh, Really, Yeah, Unbelievable I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Lately there have been a lot of news reports about the charges being filed against the people who attacked the Capitol. In case you are wondering, yes, I did think about that word choice and that is the one I settled on. All you need to do is look at the tape. And that’s where I’m going.

For years, hundreds of years, we’ve settled on a system of innocent until proven guilty. It’s a good system. The Presumption of Innocence is so good most people assume it’s a guaranteed right. Actually, it isn’t. Due process is. Due process requires certain procedures are followed before a person can be charged with, tried for, or convicted of any illegal act. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution demands due process in federal cases and the Fourteenth Amendment extends that protection to those accused in state and local cases. Part of due process at the level of conviction is that the accuser meet a “standard of proof.” That’s where things enter the “Really?” realm for me. Stick with me for another minute please.

Because the accuser has to meet a burden of proof is it assumed the accused is innocent until that proof is met. I prefer to think of it as the accused has not been proven guilty. In fact, if you have served on a jury you might recall before deliberations began the judge instructed you and the other jury members that you were to determine if the accused is guilty or not guilty. Nobody voted for innocent.

Eagle eyed wordsmiths will have noticed in the previous paragraph’s opening sentence I used the word “assume” instead of “presume.” If we have to call the current system something it really should be call an Assumption of Innocence, rather than the Presumption of Innocence. To “presume” supposes there is some unspecified evidence to reach a conclusion; ‘assume’ takes for granted that whatever is supposed is true. That’s really what we have, we are assuming these people are not guilty. If we were to presume anything it would be the other way around. Why? As another great phrase we’ve all heard goes, let’s go to the tape.*

With cameras so ubiquitous you can certainly presume, darn near assume, that nothing happens without a record of it happening, often by those doing what’s happening, I am utterly amazed at what people say they did not do within days of proudly sharing videos of what they just did. That some rebel can grab a battering ram, slug his and/or her way through a locked door, smash through inner doors, steal items out of offices, take pictures of himself and or herself while battering, slugging, smashing, and stealing, and then plead not guilty of all charges just does not compute. “Yes, I went to Washington but I didn’t go inside.” Let’s go to the tape.

This is all happening at the same time news outlets are publishing security camera video of attacks against Asian Americans including a violent assault of an Asian woman on a street right in front of a police car. Let’s go to the tape.

This all got stirred up in my head over the weekend listening to the reports of the trial of that cop who killed George Floyd. (I don’t want to call it the Floyd trial because he isn’t being tried for anything, and I don’t want to call it that cop’s name trial because I don’t want to give him any extra recognition.) Let’s go to the tape.

With few exceptions all of those so far charged have pled not guilty, certainly that’s their right. They can say whatever they want and the system is built that they don’t have to prove they are not lying when they say it. Let’s go to the tape.

Replay One of the standards of proof is “Clear and Convincing Evidence,” that it is highly probably to suppose what is presented is how the elements of the action had occurred. On the legal ladder of liability this standard lands on the rung below “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,” that is the elements of the action had occurred as presented (which although is greater than to suppose the elements are present it does not mean “beyond all doubt” or “beyond a shadow of a doubt” or any other such absolute).

Call me an old fuddy duddy but I’m still of the school that if I see something happening with my eyes, I can pretty much suppose that’s how it went down and those actions did occur. Whether it is breaking door the doors to the Capitol, lifting a pack of gum, pushing an elderly Asian woman into a busy street, or kneeling on somebody until their life is snuffed out, I say we change the standard to “Let’s Go To The Tape.” It’s not just for sports anymore.

*The phrase “Let’s go to the video tape,” sometimes “Let’s go to the audio tape” is attributed to sportscaster Warner Wolf. Wolf published his memoir, Let’s Go to the Videotape: All the Plays and Replays from My Life in Sports, (Grand Central Publishing) with Larry Weisman in 2020.

Happy Independence Day

July 4, 2019July 3, 2019Michael Leave a comment

Happy Fourth of July. Interestingly nobody seems to call it Independence Day any longer. That’s because we are mostly a confused group of people. That’s we from the USA. you other we people (as opposed to wee people which would probably have somebody somewhere in the Good Ole U. S. of A. organizing a protest) might or might not but that’s not for me to question because even if you have your own freedom of speech, well that’s yours, not mine.

Anyway, what ever happened to Independence Day? I even conducted my own experiment and earlier this week asked 4 people “Do you have any plans for Independence Day?” I got 2 “What? Oh, do you mean the Fourth of July?” one “Wasn’t that last month?” and one “What I do every weekend,” which was actually confusing since the holiday is not on a weekend day making me wonder if the respondent did not know what Independence Day is, did not know when Independence Day is, or is planning on a four day weekend because by gosh by golly if the holiday is on a Thursday then it is truly and justly our God given American right to make it a four f-ing day holiday! I will be the first to admit that is a small sample size (unless you already brought that up to yourself while you were reading those preceding sentences so then I’ll be the second to admit it) but it’s clear (to me at least) that 50% of the country is confused (see, I told you), 25% is clueless, and 25% is out for him or herself at all costs.

A quick check of the local paper confirms this. In the last couple weeks there have been 2 separate instances of people pressuring a charitable organization from presenting the fundraiser “Drag Queen Bingo” and a non profit, privately held library from holding a “Drag Queen Story Hour,” reading program in the children’s section. These are the confused people. They are confused because the same people who had been quoted in the articles as saying (I’m paraphrasing here) we can’t expose our children to such aberrations were expressing love and acceptance of all people at the opening of the “Pride Parade” four weeks earlier. Agree or disagree. It confuses people when you do both.

A suburban community Fourth of July parade is being protested by a group organized by a local man to “shed light on the District Attorney’s failure to represent certain victims of violent crimes.” The organizer of the protest has just been released from prison where he served a 4-10 year sentence for aggravated assault, a violent crime. I would say he and his followers are on the clueless end of the “what’s wrong with this picture” spectrum.

For this year’s example of one out for one’s self we must turn to the national news. I was unaware that the colonial flag was symbolic of slavery and racism but then I wasn’t around 243 years ago so I can’t say for sure what they were thinking when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. Oh wait, nobody alive today was there either, not even a badly coiffed ex-football player.

Happy Birthday America. I’d suggest a stiff drink with the cake and fireworks.