King for a Day

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. –Dr. Martin Luther King

These words and others like them (taken from Dr. King's letter from a Birmingham jail) were words read this morning by the congregation where I attend church services. I decided to copy the wording from the hymnal before leaving but forgot because an amazing singer, Desiree Roots Senteio, had sung for us. I had to stop and thank her for sharing her vibrant voice. So, when I got home I searched the web for "mutuality" and "king" and found a number of sites, none of which quote the letter as it was written, but which, like the reading in my church hymnal, have combined a collection of inspiring sentences from that letter into a couple of paragraphs. (The link from the title of this entry goes to the full letter.)

I have a memory of seeing Dr. King on a black and white television giving his "I have a Dream" speech. I remember how strong and vibrant his words were. "I have a dream..." When I heard him and saw him my heart said "At last!" At last someone was brave enough to stand up with strength and compassion against the tide of corrupt prejudice. At last someone had the skill to lead with bravery and idealism instead of with anger and violence.

I've heard the question before, in school (where I was asked to write an essay), "What would the world be like if you were king?" Well, what would it be like?

Impeach Bush and watch extreme videos

I really enjoy watching others go all out for whatever they've got going on. Probably because I'm a pretty calm person (most of the time). Reminds me of high school when my friend Mary confronted a friend who had labeled her "phlegmatic." This was the highest insult Mary had every heard. She talked about it for days. She pontificated on all the evidence that proved she wasn't phlegmatic. There are those from my past lives who would never describe me as phlegmatic but I think I'm there now and have been there for a long, long time. That doesn't mean I'm uncaring.

Anyway, so back to Bush. I signed a petition to impeach Bush and have been getting these emails ever since. Today I took a look at a video claiming infringement of the First Amendment and police brutality with a horse. I agree on both counts. Police arrested the poster posters claiming inciting to riot. Well, talk about politics and you can incite a riot almost anywhere. Is that a judgment call? What's the difference between peaceable assembly and inciting to riot? When does it get to that point and stop being a Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park?

From there I went to the Impeach Bush YouTube site and viewed a few videos, including one from Neil Young and one showing Bill Maher. Bill's a guy who leaves no doubt about his opinion. A strong opinion tends to generate strong opinions in reply. Is that inciting to riot?

I try to feel concerned about the whole Iraq/Bush thing and I strongly disagree with 99% of Bush's foreign policy. On the other hand, it's hard to keep my life going when I'm so freaking angry all the time. Good luck to the protesters. I hope they get to march on D.C. and exercise their first amendment rights and all the other ones, too.

In the meantime, for a little light entertainment, try Extreme Girl Kiteboarding videos. I'm so glad women get to be just as extreme as men.

The Virginia Tech Massacre

There's a saying that if you want to stop teenage problems, stick a baby in a bottle and when its 12 put a cork in it. Seung-Hui Cho was way beyond ordinary teenage problems. Yet there's a mindset now that universities and schools should be fortresses. Cho was very sick, yet smart enough to exploit the loopholes of university life. The thing is, that no matter how many holes are closed by increased security, a person intent on finding a hole will find one. Maximum security prisons have lost prisoners.

Since the insane Cho rampage there has been a lot of finger pointing, breast beating and downright anger about Tech. Security was slow. Well, what did you expect? There has never been a shooting at Tech. Campus security does not normally handle this kind of thing. They're used to parking tickets and student brawls. I'm sure they did what seemed right at the time. It's not the fault of Tech. The fault is Cho's. He did the shooting.

Super cop movies have given us unrealistic expectations of police and security. There probably are some James Bond's and John MClane's out there but that's not the norm. In the movies the good guys have a certainty that only comes from knowing the plot ahead of time. Movies have also given us unrealistic expectations about bad guys. There are no markings on potential killers. They don't wear weird hair or have especially nasty tattoos or sneer in a certain way (wait! that's my brother – kidding!). Even if they did, the law can't act on suspicion of possible intent. The law can't act until the deed is committed or being committed.

Cho was a crazy guy who didn't get all the help he needed. In hindsight, it can be shown that he fit a profile for crazy killers. Sure, one teacher thought he was dangerous, but one teacher isn't enough. There could have been a personality conflict. It happens. Evidence needs to build. Perhaps if all of Cho's teachers, roommates and friends had been interviewed the school would have had good evidence of his serious problem. Finding the evidence required time and people the university either didn't have or didn't feel motivated to use. But that's normal. That's what happens around here. Maybe his high school could have told Tech about Cho's problems if they hadn't been bound by privacy laws. Perhaps his parents would have let Tech know that their son needed help if they had thought his condition was serious. Cho was an adult. It was his job to manage his health care. He didn't.

The best thing to do is to learn from Cho. Virginia Commonwealth University has by creating an emergency notification system that combines cell phones, campus TVs and sirens. Tech has created a similar system. We all need to learn a lot more about mental instability and insanity. We need to focus on developing healthy, active and sociable people. If we do those things then most of our problems will go away.

Locking up schools isn't going to fix anything. Especially if the killer is locked up inside.

The U.S. is not at war

While traveling back from Cancun, I heard an interview on the plane "radio" with a lawyer in New York who stated that George Bush has taken the U.S. back to pre-Magna Carta days. Deeply disturbed by this I have investigated if this is in fact the case. Apparently not. But I'm not a lawyer.

After reading the opinion of one of my senators, John Warner whose statement is obviously biased and who is a huge proponent of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), I googled the MCA and found a somewhat more even tempered opinion at Wikipedia. One of the references quoted there led me to Joanne Mariner, who is a lawyer (and a smart one presumably since she trained at Yale Law School and is a regular contributor to FindLaw's Writ) with a sobering, if mildly biased, opinion. Nonetheless, she points out the major flaws of the MCA and sees ways it can be misinterpreted.

After reading these sources, my opinion is the MCA does not give the president the right to try U.S. civilians in a military court, but it does allow him to grab any foreign national he considers a threat as he defines it. Excuse my limited imagination. King George does not wish to rule the U.S. He is preparing to rule the world. Almost everyone (except the defendant) who participates in the arrest, incarceration and trial must have a security clearance. This eliminates a lot of civilian lawyers and also makes it generally impossible for the defendant to learn what evidence there is against him (since it is classified).

"The recently declassified National Intelligence Estimate confirms that U.S. policies have spawned deep-seated Muslim resentment, and that terrorists are using this resentment to draw recruits." Joanne Mariner

The saying goes that you can catch more bees with honey than vinegar. Wouldn't it benefit us to be as friendly as possible with Arab and other Middle Eastern nations so that together we can find the unlawful extremists who turn to terrorism? The U.S. policy toward the Arab countries is (and has been) based on prejudice and a serious lack of understanding of cultural and local political information.

"As a result, detainees who have been tortured or otherwise mistreated are forever barred from going to a U.S. court to seek redress and to air what has happened to them." Joanne Mariner Loc cit

Seems to me, that passing a U.S. law that allows the President to capture foreign nationals and then hold them forever on foreign soil without access to any kind of fair trial or communication resources would be a great breach of international law. Is no one complaining? What about the UN? What about the European Union? Googling "Military Commissions Act" and "international law" I selected the transcript of a speech by John B. Bellinger, Legal Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State as published by the Harvard International Law Journal online. Mr. Bellinger answers questions about the MCA on a regular basis and put together a pretty comprehensive summary of the main objections, which he lists:

"First, what is our detention authority to hold these people to begin with? Second, were we required to release them all after the war in Afghanistan seemed to end in 2002? Third, can we and do we have the legal authority to hold these detainees indefinitely without trial? Fourth, why not simply try them in our criminal courts? Fifth, are these military commissions unfair? And lastly, do we finally have it right, now?" John Bellinger

His answers seem fairly reasoned and stated without much bias. During war prisoners can be captured and held without recourse. He concludes that although the war on Afghanistan ended in 2002, the war on the Taliban and Al Qaeda is still going and therefore the U.S. is still at war.

"Now, the problem is that the current situation is obviously different from any kind of normal armed conflict because we do not know how long this war will continue." John B. Bellinger Loc cit

The solution is to keep a war going at all times and then the president can arrest any foreign national he chooses and detain them for an unlimited, unspecified time (and take advantage of his other special war privileges). This definition of "war" seems more like an analogy than an actual war. For example, we have the "war on drugs." Is this a war? No. Likewise I don't see the "war on the Taliban and Al Qaeda" as a war. It is a police action. It is a rounding up of loose ends following a sloppy dispatch of a gang of criminals harbored in the wilds of Afghanistan. Rules of war do not apply.

Likewise, I don't consider the "peacekeeping" occupation of Iraq as war. It is interference in the internal affairs of an independent nation. The U.S. should not be there and should get the troops out. If things don't go the way we think they should, then too bad. It's not our job to run other countries – especially if they don't have weapons of mass destruction aimed at King George's head.