TV all Day? Ah, the Life of a Prisoner

    I wonder on giving our prisoners TVs. I spoke to a past inmate at the county jail today. He spoke of sitting around all day, not much more to do than to watch TV. He spoke of how some liked the concept of going to jail, since that is they have to do.

   Put your feet up, kick back, and watch TV. Ah, the life of a prisoner. 

   There was not a single rehabilitation program for him, he said.

   Get them working on the GED. Let them take college online lessons. Encourage them to work on talents and worthwhile hobbies. Let them read classic novels which teach morals.

   Whatever activity they are involved in, don't let them just watch TV all day. 

Antarctica, Said to have been Around for Million of Years, Might Melt

   It is said, Antarctica is more than 30 million years old, yet, with global warming now threatening it, it could soon pass through a "point of no return."

   And, melt away. 

   So suggests a new study in the journal Nature.

   Whether this is bad -- off top, we would say it is -- I do not know. Though I know the melting ice means rising sea levels, and retreating coast lines, and buried islands, and changes in our ecosystem. And, therein is havoc. Still, I wonder. I do not know. 

(Index -- Climate change info)

 

Society is Only as Good as its Ability to Bring People to be Good

    If an ex-con is to reform, he or she must find a welcome spot back in society. The community they move into must accept them, or the alienation will only turn them back to their old friends, If they leave prison to find no new friends -- none of the good variety -- they are left to look up the friends of their past.

   Perhaps some friends from the past are good, but most often they are not. 

   I think of our volunteer programs, and how people volunteer for service. Would this work? Could we have people from each community volunteer to be friends to help rehabilitate those coming out of prison? Perhaps. But this is different than most any volunteer project. You don't just go punch in a couple hours a month, or even a week. Being a friend is more intensive than that. Being a friend is being there for them everyday. It might mean going to movies with them, or getting together to watch ball games. 

  Though it is more intensive, we should try it. We need to provide a circle of friends around the ex-con. Another of the friends should be the parole and probation officers. If we had a program working right, the ex-con would be turning to the parole and probation officers for friendship. Call them something else, maybe post-prison advocates.

   Society is only as good as its reach to help others. It is only as good as its ability to bring those who aren't so good, to become good. 

Reforming the Criminal is Critical to Us becoming a Better Nation

   If a politician were to gaze across the political landscape, deciding which issues were most important, which ones, then, would be most important?

  Is the righteousness of a nation of any value? Is it the most important? Do I draw disfavor from those who seek to keep religion out of politics for even bringing up the righteousness of a nation?

  It is important to me. A righteous nation will not be so divided, one person against another. A righteous nation will not have a high crime rate. A righteous nation will not have the murders and thefts and corruption. A righteous nation will have more peace. It will accomplish more, because it will not be so detracted by divisions. A righteous nation will reach out to its marginalized members, those in need.

  So, what are the issues of our day -- the most important ones?

  I believe our prison system, and our judicial system are at the top of the list. How you go about reforming the criminal element is a great determinant of the society you will become. If you reform the prisoner, how big an act is that? How much a difference does it makes to the fabric of your society?

   Imagine a country without crime. No, we are not likely to attain that, at least with our limited view of the future, it would not seem something on a near horizon. Still, is it such a bad goal? Is it such an ill-advised objective? If you do not even attempt to do something, you certainly do not have much chance of getting it done. But, if you set out to attain it, you set in place the chance of getting there. You at least have a process and a plan for getting there.

  There are things we are not doing with our prisoners, with our probation and parole, that could make a difference. One, is love. Do not laugh and mock at this. If you do not love a person, they are not likely to change. Love is the most powerful thing in the world. If we leave this out of our judicial system, we are foolish. We mock at the most powerful tool at our disposal.

  We fail to provide the prisoners good associations. We toss them into prison to mix with other criminals, to influence each other. We take them out of society, where they had least have some chance of having good influences, and we place them in an environment where a greater proportion of those they rub elbows with are not of savory character. They learn from their jail mates to be better criminals when they get out, that's all. 

  What about leading the prisoner through what we call the steps of repentance? Why not? This is a process that has been proven to help. Why are we not using it? Recognize what you've done wrong. Feel remorse. Provide restitution when you can. Resolve to do better and to never repeat the act. 

  And, give the prisoner chance to succeed. We need a parole and probation system that seeks to place the ex-con in situations where they can succeed. We need this post-prison system to be providing them jobs, not just demanding that they find them. We need a post-prison system that brings in the communities they move to, providing them friends, and providing the welcome of that community. 

Theories on Yawning, Stretching, and Lymphoids

   We wake up and stretch and yawn. Later in the day, we will be rushing so much we sweat and gasp. 

   These thoughts probably cannot all be right, but I think many are, so I share them to help myself preserve them. I repeat, some of them are probably wrong. But, that does not mean many of them might not be right. I think most of my thoughts here are correct.

   Lymphoids are attached to the bones. During the night, they are not kept tight. When we lie down and relax, since the lymphoids are not being stretched open, they drain. In the morning, when we wake, as we stretch -- the one end of the lymphoid holding to one bone and the other end being attached to another bone -- it pops open. Air then rushes into the empty vacuum, into the empty tube, the lymphoid. Thus, we yawn, to draw the air in. Perhaps we can even help opening up these lymphoids by voluntarily breathing deep, without waiting for a yawn. 

   You sometimes feel a creakiness in your bones, a stiffness? Do we stretch before we work out to loosen up? The bones need body fluid. They have become dried. By stretching, we allow the lymphoids to open, air and body fluids rush into them, both of which are needed to take the aches and pains and stiffness out of the bones. 

   The lyphoids have no pump. They are reliant upon body movement, instead. When we exercise, there is great movement. The lymphoids can be at their greatest use. Now, consider that they not only take body fluids into the body, but also out. When we exercise, body fluids are, indeed, being taken out. Our sweat glands are opened. Body fluids flow out of the sweat glands. With all this body fluid having left the body, drained from our muscles and bones, we are left feeling stiff, because there is not enough body fluid left. When we stretch before the next exercise, it gets body fluids back into the bones and muscles.

  Two things can happen to disrupt the system. One, the lymphoids can become clogged or stuck together. If they are flattened and the insides stuck together, the air and liquids will not be able to pass through, preventing the muscles and bones from getting nutrients. Second, the quality of the body fluids -- for whatever reason -- reduces as we get older. 

   Solving the first problem might be easier. It seems we should be able to come up with a medicine that cleans the lymphoids, that keeps them from sticking together and clogging up. But, can we identify what nutrients are missing in the body fluids as we get older, and artificially produce them and inject them into the body? Does exercise play a role in the creation of necessary nutrients? Does it play a role in permanently removing certain nutrients? 

   Blood flow is also involved in feeding our bodies. Nutrient flow also goes through our veins and arteries. But, I wonder if the lymphoids are a greater factor when it comes to stiffness and aging. The veins are arteries never empty of blood. The lymphoids do. Some of them might empty every night when we go to bed. If we would study death, and seek to overcome it, we should analyze and study the nutrients that flow through our lymphoids. 

     

    

 Character comes not from basking in success,

 but from weathering failure.

-

Lincoln's Words Might Speak to Today's Division

   It was 1858. Abraham Lincoln had just been nominated by his party to oppose Stephen A. Douglas in the Illinois race for senator. And, he gave us one of his famous speeches, titled, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

  He spoke of agitation that had not ceased, but only gained strength since a new policy on slavery had been instituted.  "In my opinion," he said, "it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."

  One wonders, then, if such searing division threatened to tear apart the nation then, could it now? Is slavery the only division capable of doing that, or could other matters so divide this nation that it will not endure?

  Say, politics. Say, political football. Could the division of Republicans and Democrats also threaten our nation?

   It has been 162 years since then. The R's and D's have been fighting all along. No, in all that time, the nation has not been torn asunder. But, one wonders. Have the two parties ever been so divided as they are now? Has it reached a tipping point? 

  Lincoln's words echo. Let us change a few words to apply them to our times. Listen to them: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half in mortal hatred of Democrats and half in mortal hatred of Republicans."

  Mind you, this: Even as in Lincoln's day, turmoil over race is a great part of the division.

  When hatred becomes so pronounced, when each side looks at the other as if they are looking at the devil himself, then the division is so deep, the nation is imperiled. When you look at the other side and see only the devil, the hope of reconciliation grows thin. Lincoln spoke of how the nation would have to pass through a crisis, and that crisis would then have to pass. "It will not cease," he said, "until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed." One wonders if we, too, must face a crisis, and if we, too, must have it pass, if we are to endure. 

  They called the crisis back in Lincoln's day, the Civil War. Considering today's environment, and the contempt and wrath the two parties have for each other, we might could call the crisis we must pass through, the Uncivil War.

Let the Ex-con Vote

    He stepped out of the door after I had left a door-hanger on his door. "Excuse me," he said, then asked me what I stood for as a candidate.  I ventured to tell him my stand on prisons and prisoner treatment. Turns out, he served time in Indiana. 

   As I left, it occurred to me that as an ex-con, he cannot vote. Now, just to meet this guy, you would think him about as good of an individual as there is. Still, we've got a system that won't let him vote.  I came home and reviewed the statistics. Twenty million Americans are ex-convicts. That's roughly 8 percent of our population.

   Disenfranchised. Not allowed to vote. 

   I came home and thought of a neighbor, and how she is an ex-con. She wanted to run for office, same office I am running for. I don't believe there is any law against her running for office. But, she can't vote, so that's one less vote she'll have. Point is, she is a good, responsible citizen. She should be allowed to vote.

   My new friend (if I can call him that, though I will never see him again) should also be allowed to vote.  If you know enough ex-cons, you also know that some of them are simply gems.

   Of course they should be allowed to vote. They are part of our citizenry.

We are Too Lax with Security Inside Our Prisons

   It should amaze us that we cannot prevent crimes from happening in our prisons. We have them under lock and key, guarding them all hours, day and night, yet we hear stories of how they break into fights and beat each other.

   Assault is a crime. 

   Prisoners live in fear of each other. If the rest of us lived under such fear, we would demand better of our police, and of our government. If it does not change for the prisoners, the day will come that they will sue. They are in a government facility. Government is their caretaker. If government puts them in a situation where they are not safe, that is wrong. 

   It is true that prisoners are charged for many of the assaults they commit in prison. But, not all. Not enough that fellow prisoners live without fear of assault. 

   Some would wonder how many guards we would have to hire to provide security for the prisoners. Too many, they would say. We cannot afford that. 

   Then, you cannot afford justice and you refuse to afford peace. 

   Somehow, as I sit here writing, I wonder if Utah is one of the exceptions, if Utah protects its prisoners better, if there simply are hardly any prison fights, if no prisoner lives in fear of another prisoner. I spoke to the mom of a former prison guard a couple days ago. She indicated such attacks do, indeed, exist in our Utah prisons.

   The answer? What should we do? More guards? 

   We should already see that it is not healthy for the inmates to associate with each other. We should be bringing in volunteers who are good influences to provide them social interaction. But, every prisoner's cell should be protected from other inmates. Showers should be in each cell. Food should eaten either in the cell, or with visiting family members under supervision of prison workers.

   On the streets, outside the prison, people often go bad because of the intimidation of friends. They can live under fear of each other, and thus be lured into lives of crime. But, it should not be so inside the prison. We should have enough control of life in the prison that no such thing as a prison gang ever exists. It is laxness on our part that we allow gangs in our prison, that we allow any physical assault, and that we suppose such things are acceptable. 

 

   

Rowdy Children Need Friends, but They also Need Supervision

    Parents understandably are hesitant about letting their children play with neighborhood kids who are rowdy, and sometimes on drugs.

   But, what of the kid who is rowdy? If the good kids don't play with him, who will be his friends? Who will end up being his (or her) influence?

   It becomes a good, caring parent, then, to  draw the rowdy neighborhood children in, to accept them, to let their children play with the neighborhood rowdies.

  But, only when they are supervised. Take your child and the rowdy child to the movies. Whatever activity the children do, be there to supervise them. 

  

Prisoners Will Never be Better than the Company They Keep

    If you were a parent, and there were some children in the neighborhood who were a rowdy, and perhaps on drugs, would you let your child go play with them?

   I'm thinking most every parent can see that isn't wise.

   So, why do we let prisoners associate with each other? Why do we collect them all in a bunch and toss them together and say, Hey, these are your new best friends. Hope they are a good influence on you.

   Prisons should not allow so much interaction between inmates. Rather, good influences should be brought in to interact with them. If the prisoner cannot be trusted to be with the good influences in open meeting, then let him or her meet with them through the bullet-proof windows.

   Allow the prisoners to play sports with each other -- with the provision their privileges will be cut off if they so much as get angry with the other participants. Model prisoners only allowed. 

  You are only as good as the company you keep, it is said. Why can we not see that?

  

Lloyd Newell Offers Another Commentary on Events of Our Times

    Lloyd Newell is becoming one of my favorite voices on the events going on in our world. For the second week in a row, he offered sound thought in "Music and the Spoken Word," which includes a weekly performance by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square along with his commentary. 

   This week, Newell notes we are taught by trials, "but it's not often the the entire world faces the same challenge -- the same learning experience -- at the same time."

   "We have all been called upon to make sacrifices to contain the virus, and some of those sacrifices have been difficult." 

   Newell notes we are learning we need each other, and says, "it is sobering to realize how our choices can affect people a world away. We need to be able to count on one other, depend on each other. So many are reaching out to be part of the solution."

https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/videos/september-20-2020-4749-music-and-the-spoken-word.html

DJ Hrubes Case Reveals a Number of Flaws

   It sometimes seems so impossible to keep up. I open Facebook tonight to learn of a police use of a weapon on a 10-year-old Black child.

   Back in June.

   DJ Hrubes. Police were chasing through the community looking for two suspects. A Woods Cross officer came to the yard where the 10-year-old Hrubes lives. The officer jumped out of the car, aimed the gun at the child, and ordered him to get on the ground.

   The mother rushed out, demanding to know what was going on, pointing out that it was her 10-year-old son. The officer put his weapon away and left, returning later to apologize, earning a hug from the child. 

   There is more than racial profiling to deal with here, more that is wrong than just that. 1.) The officer did not have his body cam going. 3.) Police accounts say they chased the child, whereas witness accounts say there was no such chase. 4.) There is question as to whether County Attorney Troy Rawlings is even considering charges, and whether police are giving him enough information to know if charges should be pressed. 

   Three things:

 First, A law should be passed, making it a crime for a police officer to knowingly give false information. If officers are lying to cover up their actions, that should not be allowed, condoned, or tolerated. If an officer gives wrong information, he or she should follow up with a correction as soon as it is discovered that the initial information was wrong.

 Second,  Such false information should be considered obstruction of justice, and officers who knowingly provide it to protect themselves should be charged with obstruction. If the officer's superiors took any actions, such as asking that the case not have a formal investigation, that, too, should be considered obstruction of justice.

  Third, If the county attorney is not getting enough information from officers to determine if a crime has been committed, he should press charges, anyway, thus not allowing the officers to protect themselves by refusing to give evidence. The case can then be settled in court, where it should be, anyway.  It would seem there is not good reason for the county attorney not determining whether he will prosecute. If the county attorney needs more evidence before filing charges, he should bring in an independent investigator.

   Other things, besides those three, also deserve attention. Was there a reprimand or discipline of the officer for racial profiling? Were all the officers of the Woods Cross police reminded that they need to have their body cams rolling? 

 

 

 Character comes not from success, 

but from weathering failure. 

-

Faith always has a future. 

It walks into its tomorrows with confidence. 

- 

Could We have Reformed Eric Pectol?

    What could have been done to reform Eric Pectol? He was convicted of shooting a man in the chest -- attempted murder -- in 2004. Drug convictions came in 2014 and 2017. Then, Thursday, he ran from the scene of an accident, was chased by police, evidently pulled a gun on officers, and was shot, himself. 

   Could Pectol have been reformed in prison? Did we try to reform him, or did he judy do his time, earn early parole, and leave prison without a concerted effort having been made to reform him?

   Was any effort made to reform him while he was on parole? Did we just keep track of him, ready to toss him back in prison if he misbehaved, and that was the extent of reforming him?

   Our criminals need better direction, better counseling, better teaching. In prison, they need to be taught better. Once out and on probation, they need friends. Probation officers should be that. We need probation officers who are anxious to place the ex-cons in the best situations possible, so they do not return to lives of crime.

   Alas, our parole programs are hardly that. 

   Who knows if Pectol could have been reformed, I will only say that from what I do know about our prisons and our parole programs, we do not do an adequate job of reforming criminals such as Eric Pectol. 
 

Why not have a Display Base for the Campaign Signs?

    An invention, then. Candidates need places to place their signs. Why not have a display rack, where you can slide in, say, 10 lawn signs. The long display rack would have a slot on the top and another on the bottom, where signs would be slid in, one after another. Above it, it would say, "We are endorsing not the candidates, but their right to free speech." The display case could be sold to businesses, or the sign-making company could offer use of it during the election season, taking it back at the end so the business would not need to mess with storage.

  The display would help accommodate a neat, clean, orderly appearance of the signs. So, if cities suppose signage can get to looking trashy, this should eliminate much of that.

Why -- Nowhere, all across America -- no protest for Kap and Reid?

    Add Eric Reid to the mix, and, to me, there can be no doubt that the NFL blackballs those who take too strong of stands on social justice.  

   The words of the commissioner just months ago echo in our minds: "I wish we had listened earlier, Kap, to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to."

   Those words ring empty. Colin Kaepernick is, statistically, one of the best quarterbacks in history. Still not playing in the league? Clearly, something is wrong.

  And, now his old teammate from San Francisco, Eric Reid. Last season, we opening the box score week after week to see Reid leading the Carolina Panthers in defensive statistics. He set two franchise records. He was one of the best defensive players in the league.

   But, he continued to talk social justice. And, now, the season is underway and no one has signed him to a new contract. Clearly, something is wrong.

   America protests. America -- much of it -- recognizes George Floyd was wrongfully killed, and Breonna Taylor, and so forth. There is an outcry. Why no protests for Kaepernick and Reid? Why -- no where, all across America -- do we not hear of a protest for Kaepernick and Reid?

Damien's Case Screams for Reason as to Why Body Cams aren't Allowed

    Even as we can see police killings typically would not come to light but for body cams, we discover those on federal task forces are not allowed to wear them. 

   It has been more than two weeks since Damien Evans was killed by officers. Following the protocol of the Salt Lake City Police Department, the body cam footage would have been released by now. But, since it was a federal task force that killed Evans, there will be no such release.

   Such federal policy is shameful. It begs the question of whether officers want to get away with killing. If you do no wrong, why not video these shootings? Why this policy against wearing body cams?

   The case involving Damien Evans is especially troubling. He was wanted for no more than "absconding," which is the term used for when a person no longer lives at the address they are suppose to. So, we have someone who wasn't living where they were suppose to, and we call in a specially funded federal task force to straighten out such a serious matter? And, we end up killing him?  

   There may be more to this than what we know. Perhaps it was for more than just "absconding." This case cries for transparency, not just in having body cams, but in explaining why a federal task force was required for an infraction no more serious than Evans not living where he was suppose to.   

We Cry for the Child When it Comes to Trafficking, but What of These?

    Even as the nation turns its eye to child abuse, and child trafficking, and child pornography, raging in anger at those who would harm our children . . .

   Comes news that goes untouched by many. The Trump administration says it has expelled nearly 8,800 migrant children who arrived at the southern border without their parents due to coronavirus restrictions. 

   It is wonderful to care for the child, as we do when it comes to child abuse. But, how do we then turn the other way when it comes to the 8,800 migrant children? These are children, too.  

    "You're In The Top 1%. We  Need You To Help Lead Our Movement To Victory," reads the ad for Donald Trump. In the ad, it invites them to select how much they will donate, from $37 to $2,800 or "other."

   Those are not large amounts. Not for the rich. 

   When Trump reformed the tax code, its has been said the wealthy came out well. The 1 percent did better than the low to middle class, it is said. 

   And, I wonder at President Trump's relationship with the top 1 percent. 

Daily Quote

You don't built tomorrow 

by tearing down today.

-

With the Fires, We Wonder at Joel 2

  With the news story about how the sun didn't visibly come up in San Francisco one day this past week, and then with the darkness also happening in Oregon, many people's thoughts turned to Joel 2:30-31, which says, "I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. the sun also shall be turned into darkness." 

  Earlier in that same chapter in Joel, it says, "A day of darkness and gloominess. . . . A fire burneth before them; and behind them a flame burneth."

  And, hidden in that passage, Joel 2:2-3, this: "The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a flame burneth." When California first opened up, it was as if it were the Garden of Eden, people flocking to get there. When people set out on the Oregon Trail, Oregon beckoned before them as if it were the Garden of Eden. 

   And now? This is not the first year fires have ravaged the land, destroying cities. There are parts, indeed, being turned into desolate wilderness. "The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind a desolate wilderness." Whether it is fulfillment of prophecy might be hard to say, but there certainly is a likeness. 

Lloyd Newell Offers Wonderful Insights for the Debate Across America

   A wonderful message was offered in Music and the Spoken Word (a broadcast from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) today. It speaks to the debate raging across America, and of our biases. Too often, we have blind spots in our thinking, and it helps to speak to others, who see things differently, and thus we help each other overcome our blind spots. But, in speaking with each other, too often we speak past each other in monologue, not dialogue, not really listening, just speaking our message and not paying much attention to the other person.

  I don't know that anyone has offered a more thoughtful, reasoning, calming message on what is going on than is in this Music and the Spoken Word. I don't know that any better direction on what we should do is being offered. Go to the 17:15 mark. Lloyd Newell speaks till about the 20:15 mark. That is only three minutes and you will reap some wonderful thoughts for what is going on in our world. The link is at the bottom. But, if you would prefer to just read what Lloyd Newell says, here it is:

  Anyone who has ever passed a driving test knows what a blind spot is. It’s that troublesome area just outside your field of vision that can make changing lanes dangerous. No matter how you adjust your mirrors, you can’t truly drive safely unless you’re aware of and account for your blind spot.

  We all have another kind of blind spot. One that has nothing to do with driving, but it can be just as dangerous. And if we don’t account for it, we could seriously hurt ourselves and others. The truth is, when we look at life and at each other we don’t see the complete picture.

  Unavoidably, biases and preconceptions form over the years and they can keep us from fully seeing, understanding and connecting with another. For example, when we see someone who looks different from us, what do we think? Do we make assumptions based on limited information?

  So often we think we’re talking to each other, when we’re really talking past each other. We carry on monologues, not dialogues. We make judgments, not connections.

  The good news is that even though we all have blind spots, we can all overcome them. As with driving, the first step is to acknowledge that blind spots exist. To stop assuming that we can see everything there is to see. We share life’s highway with many other drivers and no two are exactly alike. We all have been shaped by our history, background and experiences. To travel safely, we need to travel together.

  Maybe the best way to check your blind spot is to reach out to someone who has a different view, who sees things you don’t, and then listen without judging. Recently, the leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a joint statement about racial harmony. Demonstrating that we see more clearly when we look together. They wrote, “unitedly we declare that the answers to racism, prejudice, discrimination and hate will not come from government or law enforcement alone. Solutions will come as we open our hearts to those whose lives are different than our own, as we work to build bonds of genuine friendship, and as we see each other as the brothers and sisters we are — for we are all children of a loving God.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eImAbuhUu-A&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3pCo8NG0rPGK3qpHshxqW18Vlm9q7u_fUz7zxLAig1joeDnIo5q7FcRRw

 

Things that are Right

    Things that are right, like caring for the poor and downtrodden, like visiting the prisoner in prison. Things that are right and things that are good, these should be the aspirations of our politicians. 

   And,  making the lot of the average person better, could I do that, if elected?  I would try. I would pick at each problem, and try.

   I look at the poor from other countries. Many flee for fear of their governments, or the crime there, or from abusive spouses. Some seek but for better income. for better lives. If we would target the poor and downtrodden to help, the immigrant is as among them. 

  We could help them establish themselves once they arrive here. Often, the jobs they take are substandard. Perhaps, there are times when employers look upon them and say, Now, there is someone I can employ at low wage. They form our ghettos, often, and often the ghetto comes with crime. So, we hate them, the more.

  If we would reduce our crime, we should improve their livelihoods. Training and education and learning to speak English are part of this. I am not one quick to government spending, so I would suggest we keep as much of those things to our private sector. But, perhaps our existing Workforce Services could help track them better. Could we not keep track of each one of them and seek to place them in better jobs? Not wait for them to come in to us, but be looking for jobs to increase their salary and then calling them up and saying, Hey, found you this new job. Sometimes, it would be lateral movement, going from one job as a bricklayer to just another, except that the pay would be better. This is what our competitive markets are suppose to be all about. If we create a system where the different bricklayer employers have to vie for the services by outbidding each other, the pay is going to go up. If we have too many bricklayers and that is holding the pay down, let other jobs compete for their services, whether they be road crews or whatever. 

  Such an employment service is something that would greatly improve our society. I look at how it is said Utah ranks at the bottom in the nation in equality. Much of this is that they need more upward mobility in the job market. If we had our Workforce Services tracking each woman employee, and willing to suggest to employers that they knew a secretary who would do well as an administrator, we could perhaps end this ranking of Utah being at the bottom in equality for women.

  But, the employment agents would need to be willing to advocate for the workers. They would need to take that immigrant from Mexico, and suggest to employers that he or she, too, was capable of an administrative position. Maybe take the name, Workforce Services, and change it to, Workforce Advocates.

  With such an employment agency designed to drive the pay scale up, by increasing competition for labor, Utah's standard of living would increase for all the working class. 

 

   I run for office, the state legislature, House District 44. I do hope to do good. It is my hope. I believe most every politician wants to do well. Like me, they seek to do good. 

Black Lives Matter Utah Founder Lists What They Have Done

  If you would want to know what Black Lives Matter Utah is all about, and what they do, a recent mass email from founder Lex Scott would be worthy to read. She said that since the inception of the organization, they have:

-- We have successfully gotten the majority of candidates running for Salt Lake Office to put down in writing; how they plan to handle police accountability and transparency if elected. We also met with the majority of candidates to discuss black lives matter and black community.

-- We rented out 2 movie theaters for the Black Panther Premier and had the time of our lives.

-- We rented out a theater for a Wrinkle in Time and had the time of our lives.

-- We rented out a theater for Spiderverse and had the time of our lives.

-- We have registered thousands of inmates to vote including inmates in Oxbow jail, Salt Lake Metro Jail, and this year we are doing Davis County Jail.

-- We had Oscar Winning Ruth Carter speak and inspire a large crowd of members.

-- We served 300 meals to the homeless on Thanksgiving.

-- We gave groceries and presents to the homeless during Christmas.

-- We are helping refugees with groceries during the Pandemic.

-- We have held Black Lives Matter Summer camp for kids Two years in a row.

-- We have spoken at more than 20 Utah Schools about black lives matter, and police accountability and transparency.

-- We were invited to speak at the NYU Law School Policing project regarding our work with police accountability and Transparency.

-- We were invited to Quantico and FBI Headquarters to represent Black Lives Matter due to our work with police accountability and transparency.

-- We along with C.A.G were able to influence Salt Lake Police department to remove over 70 lethal shotguns from police patrol cars and replace them with less than lethal weapons. 

-- We along with UAPB and CAG were able to change the body came policy in Salt Lake City so that all body cam footage must be released within 10 days of every officer involved shooting unedited with sound.

-- We did a Christmas card drive for youth who are suicidal and are currently in a mental health facility.

-- We did a suicide prevention training after we lost one of our chapter leaders Trevor Mortimer.

-- We did a financial education training to educate members on credit, collections, and how to buy a house.

-- We have done two white ally trainings. We need to do more. Kathy Abarca was amazing.

-- We protested Ben Shapiro.

-- We protested Tomi Lahren.

-- We have protested ICE and Homeland Security three times.

-- We held a Transracial adoption panel to educate Utahns about the struggles, experiences, and successes of transracial adoption.

-- We held a panel regarding growing up black in Utah.

-- We got Harmons Grocery Chain to put black hair products in their stores.

-- We held two black lives matter comedy shows.

-- We donated 10 computers to East High School.

-- We have spoken at almost every college in Utah. WSU, USU, UofU, BYU, SUU, SLCC, Westminster. We are only missing Snow College.

-- We have held several homeless outreach events.

-- We have performed too many cop watches to count.

-- We held a black brunch.

-- We have held too many protests to count.

-- We have purchased a school bus and are turning it into a black history museum.

-- We had Al Woolem speak to members.

-- We held a Black Excellence Party.

-- We have created a black library.

-- And my favorite. We have helped a ton of black children who were being bullied.

-- We along with the CAG have met with Utah police regarding police reform every two weeks for three years straight.

-- We marched in the Pride Parade twice.

-- We had a booth at LGBTQ Prom.

-- We launched a police reform petition that has more than one million signatures.

-- We helped the creators of the app called Secyre to perfect their app that works as an alternative to calling the police.

-- We have met with several elected representatives regarding new police reform bills. We believe that the majority of these bills will pass in January.

-- We have have canvassed for and against political candidates running for office.

 Our work has been covered by CNN, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair magazine, Yes Magazine, Parenting Magazine, Fox News, MSNBC, Yahoo News, BRUT media, Reuters, and many more publications.

 I know that I am forgetting something. We do a lot here. We are a team. We love black people. Help us do more. 

 Whispers behind your back are silent. But, it is only when they are brought into the light of day that they are silenced. 

-

 The unlovable ones are the ones 

who need love the most.

-

Parole and Probation are More of a Whip than a Loving Arm

   If a person is to change, they need to believe they can. They need positive reinforcement. They do not need frustrations placed in front of them, but taken away. When they are weak, they need support. And, patience.

   Our parole and probation programs fail our ex-convicts. There is little in them to provide them help. We do not help find jobs for them. Rather, we just demand that they have those jobs. Now, since society often does not want to hire the ex-con, that becomes problematic. When they fall out of housing, and feel desperate and unable to find it, rather than helping them find it, we toss them back in jail for not having it.
And, we assess them fees with no regard they are too poor to pay for them. 

  If someone had just been in the hospital, would we give them crutches, or a whip across their back? I'm not sure the ex-con is so different. They, too, are rehabilitating. We do not think of them as tender and wounded, but they are. They've just been in jail. They exit wondering if society will accept them. They wonder if they will be able to find a job, if their families will take them back, if they will be able to stay off drugs, and away from friends that haunted their pasts. And, we do consider that all these things make them fragile? They are. Perhaps as much as any human being, they are. They are under so much challenge, at any point they could snap under the heavy pressure.

  And do, time after time.

  Think of them as fragile, and you will have a better chance of not breaking them. Think of them and treat them only as hardened criminals, and you will get what you asked for. Give them no avenue to escape their pasts, and they won't. They will be the hardened criminal because society offers them no other road to travel down.

  Our parole and probation programs are more of a whip than a loving arm. We need to toss out the system we've got, and replace it with one that really can change them, instead of just grinding them down. 

You Want the Ex-con to Succeed, Lest He Return to a Life of Crime

    We send them back to prison on no more of a parole violation than failure to report that they are living at a new address. We have such an extensive parole system, that it traipses them in and out of court, tying up court time that could be used for more meaningful cases.

   We have twice as many people on parole and probation as we do prisoners in prison cells -- so many that if we gathered them all together to form a city, it would be the second-largest city in the nation. 

   Often, the parole and probation work is done by contracting it out. We should audit the private firms that work with our parole and probation, for if the art of private enterprise is to reduce costs, are we?

   No longer sending them back to prison for small infractions makes sense. We do not need people in prison for such simple offenses as "absconding," or, in other words, failing to report where they are living.

  Probation and parole needs to be refocused. It should largely be there to serve the ex-con, not to reconvict him. If we want them to reform, we need to place them back in society in a way that gives them the best chance to succeed. If they lack a job, or if we have them paying fees they cannot afford, they are more likely to return to a lives of crime. 

  If they end up in homes where there are bad influences, they will return to lives of crime. Our current system does call for placing them in homes where other people live who also have criminal records, and in homes where drugs are not present. But, the ex-convicts largely find their own homes, then the probation or parole officer just comes by and checks off on it. It shouldn't be that way. The probation and parole officers should find the homes. Jobs? If the ex-con finds his or her own job, that is well. But the P and P officer should also be doing that. And, once in a job, the parolee often needs even better income than what it offers, so the parole officer should be looking to place the person in yet a better job. 

   Again, the probation and parole officer should be there to help the parolee or person on probation. They should be doing every thing they can to make the transition coming out of prison pleasant and comfortable. You want the ex-con to adapt, so, rather than making it hard for him, you should make it easy.

Utah Department of Corrections Adult Probation and Parole

   

When Change Becomes Urgent

These are tumultuous times for our nation, for our state. Milquetoast answers will not do. We cannot continue to be but a reflection of the rest of the nation.

+ Police violence? At current, we are, indeed, but a reflection of the rest of the nation. We train our officers much the same, so we should not expect different results. In fact, a greater proportion of Black people in Utah are killed by police than are in any other state in the union, according to a study at mappingpoliceviolence.org. If you have those with racial bias on your police force, you should find them and fire them. Let's background check not only those we hire, but all existing officers, asking their family, friends and past co-workers if they have detected signs of racial prejudice. Such backgrounding and firing of officers is not being done nationwide. Let us be bold enough to do it.

+ We are the most incarcerating nation in the world. We toss people in jail before they are even convicted. Seventy-four percent of the people in local jails are there not because they are convicted, but because they are awaiting trial. Of those in prison, as much as a third are there on parole violations, which often  are for such simple things as failure to report that they've moved to another address. If we would reduce our incarceration rates, we must separate ourselves from the way things are done in other states. We should jail before trial only those who are threats to society. And, we must quit sending back to prison those with such small infractions as failing to provide their new addresses.   

+ We can look at the struggle we are facing to get more money into the classroom, We can look at how our front-line foster care workers are turning over at a 30-50 percent rate each year. Yes, we need more revenue. But in finding a way to fund our needs, we must strive to do so without taxing the average person more. For decades, we have noticed how tax loopholes allow money to go uncollected that really should be collected. If we can see it is wrong, why don't we change it? Though the federal government will continue to leave the offending tax loopholes untouched, let us, as a state, simply close them, and increase our financial coffers.

+  Utah continues to rank at the bottom in women's inequality. Much of this is due to the lack of upward mobility in the workforce. It is a problem women share with others, including immigrants. They arrive here, take jobs, but then are stuck in those same low-paying jobs. In some cases, pay is so low it leads to a life of crime. Let us, then, step up our efforts to train those in lower-paying jobs to advance to higher-paying positions. Let us increase our job-placement efforts, keeping track of all those in low-paying positions and placing them whenever we find spots in higher-paying jobs. This would be an employment innovation not found elsewhere in the nation. 

If we remain but a reflection of the world, we will have all the same problems. Let's take a deep look at ourselves and our values, and reflect them, instead.

Answers that work

Before Kaepernick, There was the Black 14

   "If I want to protest, I'll do it on my own time." -- Tommy Tucker, white linebacker from Salt Lake City on the 1969 Wyoming Cowboy football team.

    They call them the Black 14. Fourteen members of the Cowboys were Black. Their team was 4-0 on the season, ranked 16th in the nation. Some thought they were as good a team as their was in the land. 

    Then, the day before Wyoming was to play BYU, the 14 players approached Coach Lloyd Eaton to ask him if they could wear armbands to protest against BYU. Listen to the words of their teammate again now that you know that. "If I want to protest, I'll do it on my own time."

   And, think of the Colin Kaepernick protests. Think of the NFL of this year. Think of the NBA players. And, have the words of Tommy Tucker wafting through it all. "If I want to protest, I'll do it on my own time." Same sentiment many fans have today. 

   "Back then, we were looked at just as they look at Kaepernick now," says one of the Black 14 in an ESPN video on YouTube titled, "The legacy of Wyoming's 'Black 14' football players and their protests."

   Just as Kaepernick never has played again since the season he chose to protest, so the Black 14 lost their jobs. Coach Eaton kicked them off the team rather than let them wear their armbands. 

   The Cowboys came into the BYU game ranked 16th in the nation. They defeated the Cougars 40-7, and then bettered San Jose State the next week, 16-7.

    But everything fell apart from there. They dropped their final four games. And then, the next year they went 1-9 and Eaton lost his job.  

To the bigger dreamer

 goes the bigger victory.

-

What you stand for is more important 

than what stands against you.

-

There are Reasons for Someone Staying with the Homeless 24/7

   If you have a delicate portion of society, you take care of them best you can. You shower on them all the attention you can, all the love.
  And you are there, onsite for them, attending to their minute needs.
  Children? We wouldn't think of raising them without being there nights, even though they seldom wake us from our sleep with a problem. (Okay, I've never been a parent. Do I need to take that back?)
  The homeless? They can be like children, some might even say like problem children. We can imagine there are nights when they argue, bicker, fight. There must be nights when they get sick, vomit, and need to go to the hospital.
    Some of them -- like a child -- might become frightened in the night. If you were sleeping with a room full of disheveled and unkempt strangers, might you not be scared? A child, when scared, runs for the safety of parents. And, every night when they go to bed, their parents are there to tuck them in, tell them a bedtime story, and give them peace.
   I do not know how well it works with the shelter attendants. If perchance some of them provide such care, do they all?  Seems to me, we should consider having someone right in there with them, same room, watching them through the night.
  And, of course it follows that someone should be there during the day, even monitoring their comings and goings as best possible. Such presence of a "parent" would discourage drugs from coming in, if nothing else. Not that you would stop it all, but it would dampen it.
  How good of "parents" you could find for our shelters might be another matter. Many are too authoritarian. For all that the homeless can be like children, there are also ways they are not. They are old enough, obviously, to make their own decisions. Still, to have a loving, tolerant, understanding person in with the homeless would be a good thing, someone not just sitting at a front desk, but right in with them, listening to and helping them with their burdens and needs, doing everything from helping them in looking for jobs, to listening to their life stories and problems.
  If we warehouse the homeless, we cannot expect theirs to become more than lives on a shelf. Bringing them into a traditional shelter might not be much more than that, though they do have some services available. Still, those services cannot fill needs as well as someone being right there with them 24/7.

When Charges are this Serious, We Should Seek to Find if They're True

 Certain charges are serious enough that when you hear about them, you immediately launch an investigation. The Atlantic is reporting that an unnamed administration official was with the President when he decided against visiting a cemetery of fallen World War I veterans. "Why should I go to that cemetery? It is filled with losers," Trump reportedly said.
  In a separate conversation, Trump reportedly referred to the marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as "suckers" for getting killed. And, it is reported that Trump asked his aides, "Who were the good guys in this war?" and didn't understand why the U.S. had chosen to side with the Allies.
  The Atlantic didn't specify its sources, only saying they were, "four people with firsthand knowledge."
  These are are serious charges. You don't just leave them there as speculation. If a president called our fallen dead, "losers" and "suckers" for getting killed, yes, that is something we should look into.If we are not demanding of ourselves to find the truth, what have we become? Sometimes, I wonder if our country hasn't become somewhat dysfunctional, for it seems in the old day, an investigation would have been launched immediately. The four aides should be subpoenaed. What they are saying should not be left to hide behind anonymity, unless they plead the Fifth.
  Do we hear any voices calling on the four to come forth and place their names behind what they are saying? That is the larger part of what needs to be done. Beyond that, an investigation might find other witnesses, and could verify if the four were, indeed and in fact, in the presence of the president at the time when he reportedly said those things.

We Learn a Lot from the Police Shooting of Jacob Albrethsen.

  There are learning points in the death of Jacob Albrethsen. There are things to be learned about policing in the shooting of that 17-year-old Orem High School student.
   Start, maybe, with what we learn about officer Joshua Hansen's mindset.  He told investigators that while he was trying to coax Albrethsen to drop the knife, it was "like nothing I said, no matter who I was, nothing was going to change his thought process."
   Hansen felt that since he was an officer, that should be the full of the matter. Albrethsen should have dropped the knife because he was being told to do so by someone in authority. But, it seemed "that no matter who I was," Albrethsen didn't care that Hansen was a police officer.
   That thought is reinforced by the account of how the officers had approached Albrethsen. Hansen  "identified himself as a police officer" and instructed the 17-year old to put the knife down.
  What do we learn from this? Sometimes it will not matter that you are a police officer. They are not going to put their weapon down just because you are who you are. This can particularly be the case when the person is on drugs, or mentally ill.
  If we had had a social worker answering the call, instead of police, that worker would not have come in with such a confrontational style. The social worker would not have been demanding, would not have cited his or her authority with the suggestion of, "Do as you're told."
  We have a lot of cases where the mentally ill are killed by police. This is one of the reasons why. They are not trained to deal with the mentally ill. And, the switchboard dispatchers who receive the 911 calls are not trained to call the social workers, who would handle the situation more delicately.
  "I'm the law around here. You'll do as you're told, or I'll have to shoot you dead," is not always the best approach.
   We also learn that just as police can be scared, so can the person who is fleeing. Officer Hansen told investigators he feared for his life. How threatened he felt is reflected by his reporting that it was, "Like, he (Albrethsen) was a hundred percent focused on me."
  If someone had you cornered in a closet, and a gun pointed at you, would you be scared? Would your every thought be focused on the guy who had you cornered? If we allow that the officers were scared, we should see how those who flee can be also be scared.
   We learn that if there is no great immediacy, take time to learn all the facts before going in. Albrethsen had lost his girlfriend. He was on drugs. He was paranoid. He had suggested that if anyone attacked, he would kill them. Perhaps officers interviewed the mother before they entered the home and found out all these things. Perhaps they didn't. But, they should have. And, from that, they should have realized that if they did anything that came off as if it were attack, things would not go well. They should have avoided doing anything that would come off as an attack. Being confrontational, not letting him out of a closet, pointing a gun at him -- those are things that fit in the "attack" box.
   We learn that there are times to back off. What would the harm have been if the officers had just left the home, and called social workers to come in to help? Why force the situation till it culminates in a killing? There was no need to get the kid to drop the knife. If you leave the home, then no one else is there, and the kid can't harm anyone because there is no one there to harm.
   "The nature and immediacy of the danger posed by (Albrethsen) and the extremely high probability that actions would lead to their death or serious injury were facts obvious to the officers," says the DA's report. It seems the DA would disagree with what I just said. He did not feel the officers could have backed away, or didn't even consider that they could have just backed off and left.
  "Whoa, whoa, whoa," the officers could have said when they first saw the knife in his hand. "Are you are okay? We're leaving." They could have at least said that, and at least started to back away. If he then lunged at them, then shoot. But at least try to deescalate. When officers don't at least try to deescalate, this is what can happen.

(Index: Questionable shootings)

The Unfortunate Killing of 17-Year-Old Jacob Albrethsen

  "Please don't shoot my son," the mother pleaded with police. "Please don't shoot him. He's little."
But 17-year-old Jacob E. Albrethsen, a student at Orem High School, was indeed shot dead by officers that Oct. 12th day in 2018.
   Jacob had locked himself into the home, locking his mother out. He had missed school for three weeks following a break up with his girlfriend. The mother was also concerned that he might be using methamphetamine. The boy had been acting paranoid, she said. He had been making statements that if anyone attacked him, he would kill them.
   Emotional turmoil, mental illness, even drug usage -- those are all reasons for calling the Mobil Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT) hotline. Perhaps, the mother did not even know the hotline existed. Or, maybe she needed help getting into the home she was locked out of and she felt the police were more suited for that.
 At any rate, she called the police. Had she called MCOT, perhaps things would have turned out differently.
 Officers found Jacob hiding in a bedroom closet with a knife in his hand. They told him to put the knife down. Jacob didn't drop the knife, but instead tried to get out of the closet. One of the officers blocked his exit with the door. The officer shot at the boy with his Taser, but it either missed or didn't work at all.
  Somewhere in there was when the mother pleaded, "Please don't shoot my son. Please don't shoot him."
  Officers say the boy then lunged at them. Who knows if the boy was trying no more than just to escape from them since they had him cornered. He was surely as frightened as they.
   One of the officers then fired. The boy fell back, but the knife was still in his hand. He attempted to get up, and tried to move the closet door out of his way to get out, and an officer shot him again. At end, six gunshot wounds were found.
   At what point would it have been better for the officers to have said, Let's leave him there. Let's leave him alone. Let's back out of the house for now, and call the MCOT social workers. They are trained to deal with those with mental issues. If they still want us to go back in ahead of them, we will, but let's let them make that call, since they have the training.
   Are officers even trained to work with MCOT? Do they even consider calling MCOT?
  Was the killing justified? Could officers have done something to avoid it?
   The two officers wore body cams, but I did not find footage of the shooting posted on YouTube. Was it? If not, why not?

(Index: Questionable shootings)
 

A dollar is a dollar only when it's spent. 

If it remains in your pocket, it isn't worth a cent.

-

I Wonder at Cases Such as that of Damien Evans

  Do we dismiss this just as another hardened criminal, shot dead by police because he was fleeing police? Damien Evans became the 17th person killed by Utah police a week ago. That's two more such killings than in all of 2019 and a third of our year still lies ahead.
   I wonder at the pace of the killings, and I wonder at how it has picked up. I wonder at it picking up at the very time the issue is fracturing the nation. I think of the officers, and how they have become resolute in feeling their shooting these people is justified.
   I think of the the how it is that most would dismiss Damien Evans. He had a criminal record going back to  2003. He was running. He had a criminal record. He was wanted on a parole violation. He was fleeing. He reportedly pulled his gun on officers.
   What more do you want? Clearly, there's reason for killing him. Clearly, he's a bad guy.
   I wonder.
   Not that Evans wasn't "a bad guy," but how bad? I have learned how ex-cons can be trapped in the system, small offenses sending them back and back and back to prison, till they think they have no escape and develop a mortal fear of going back again.
   And, see no way out.
   And, flee arrest.
   And, are shot and killed..
   I think of video after video I have seen, of officers killing these people who flee from them. I watch them, and I can't see the victim's being a threat to the police. The officers insist their lives were endangered. They insist they had to kill or be killed.
   But, I wonder.

Lips That Are Quiet

Lips that are quiet
 Press kisses from above
But those that are angry
 Know not the art of love

 If you would love your neighbor
 Correct them not with words of hate
Changes come much quicker
 With words that don't berate

(Index: Poems and poetry)

-

There are Pluses and Minuses to Term Limits

  The longer a politician remains in office, the more experience he attains, and the more stature with fellow legislators. He knows the laws that have been passed. He knows who to reach out to in researching efforts. He knows how to work his bill through all the committees and which fellow legislators will help.
  And, he learns his constituents better. He knows what they wanted 10 years ago, and he knows how that changed five years ago. He knows which constituents will throw a fuss, and he knows which ones won't. He knows why he once thought certain legislation was wise, and how he learned it wasn't.
   No doubt, there are benefits in longevity.
   But, there are also reasons why enough is enough, reasons why he or she shouldn't be allowed to camp out in office all their lives.
   They build up debts, needing to return favors. They build up biases, getting stuck on their ways of thinking. Even though sometimes they learn from what does and doesn't work, more often they just stick with their established ways and biases, become more and more ingrained, never seeing the issue from a fresh perspective. They build up biases against fellow legislators. If Nancy Pelosi offends them on one issue, they might remain enemies towards her for the total of their time on the hill.
   They always have tomorrow, so they are not pressed to get things done. They become more interested in getting re-elected than they are with tackling divisive issues.
   Partisan politics feeds on the hatred that builds up between the legislators, the Republicans becoming more set in their hatred of Democrats and vice versa, whereas new legislators coming into office bring a clean slate of feelings towards the legislators they will be working with.
   Term limits, then? Other pluses include the energy the new legislator brings, and the lack of yet having become corrupted by the system.