A Fistful of Feathers and the Bill of Rights

The First Amendment to the Constitution starts off by saying, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...".

Fortunately for the Feds, this doesn't seem to apply to the myriad of regulations that can be applied, at will, by the myriads of agencies that we have created.

Take, for instance, the case of Robert Soto, a religious leader of the Lipan Apache. He recently had his eagle feathers returned by the Feds after they were confiscated during a pow wow in 2006. The issue was that he didn't have a permit for these feathers. These feathers have been used by his people for quite some time (both this particular set and ones like it) and the eagles are never killed to collect the feathers.

Luke Goodrich, of the Beckket Fund for Religious Liberty pointed out in the Indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com article linked above that: "The government allows hundreds of eagles, if not thousands, to be killed every year for non-religious reasons. Yet it won't allow these Native Americans to possess even a single feather...”.

Although the feathers were returned to Soto in March, they have a stringent set of regulations attached to them. Soto must carry paperwork showing that he is allowed to have them, he cannot pass them on to anyone else, even upon his death.

So, while he is allowed to perform his religious ceremonies as he sees fit, I am not sure how anyone can argue that this is not "prohibiting the free exercise.." of his religion or show any compelling reason the state needs to protect already dead eagles from having their feathers used in religious ceremonies.

If you believe the Federal government is primarily concerned with upholding and protecting the principles and words of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, then consider this situation.   

Endless!!!

A recent trip to the bookstore and a poster for some book called Peanut Butter and Cupcake led Diane to remark that they just keep making books! It made us wonder how there could continue to be a market for these arrangements of words on paper.

I then reminded her of what King Solomon wrote some 3500 years ago; "...there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body." If that was the case then, imagine what he would feel now, with 3500 years more worth of books in the mix.

That being said, here are a few I have pulled off that stack to look at in the last few months:

   

Nebraska

A little too late to help this man out, but yesterday, Nebraska's Unicameral (the only one body legislature around) voted to repeal the death penalty.

Had they done so some 47 years ago, perhaps this fellow would still be hanging around.

Charlie Starkweather, accompanied by his 14 year old girlfriend, killed eleven people, including his girlfriend's mother, stepfather and little sister, in a spree that ended when they were finally caught in Wyoming. Charlie gave up after he was cut by glass and convinced himself that he would bleed out if he didn't get help.

A little over a year later, he was executed by the electric chair in Nebraska.

On a side note, Charlie's girlfriend,  Caril Ann Fugate, went to school with my mother. My mom remembers Caril and I think she knew her family too. We will have to ask her.

For more information about the tallest Capitol building in the U.S and the country's only unicameral government, head over here: Nebraska's Capitol

 For more info about Charlie and Caril, and their gruesome killing spree, head over to the Wyoming history page here: Charles Starkweather

Freedom?

We were recently shocked to learn that Aaron Hernandez, the football celebrity, would be receiving life imprisonment without possibility of parole after a conviction on a murder charge.

In addition to his personal freedom, Hernandez sacrificed millions in contracts, endorsements and salaries.

How could a guy that, literally, had it all, throw it away for a stupid angry act?

Indeed, this sort of stupidity seems epidemic in our country. We have about 4.4% of the world's population, and 22% of the world's prison population, giving us the highest incarceration rate in the world.

How is it that our country, whose citizens enjoy freedoms unprecedented in world history, can find themselves so often incarcerated. Are our laws out of control? Do we punish far too many people? Do we create a system of recividism?

Maybe, but I think this speaks more to our foundational framework than it does to our justice system. Our framework does give us freedom to do, quite literally, nearly anything we want to. It is designed to let us get away with whatever our own moral compass does not forbid. And, the justice sytem is there to pick up the pieces when human nature takes over and a person's moral compass lets them delve into areas of behavior that society has decided are detrimental to us all.

In short, our system is designed so that the vast majority would follow the dictates of decency, while the laws were designed to bring consequences to those that exploited their freedoms.

But, with more and more people losing an understanding and a sense of morality, more and more are in need of the correction that the law brings. Without an understanding of right and wrong, the real freedoms we have can lead someone to start to think they can do whatever they want without consequence.

Therefore, I think someone who "has it all" might find it even easier than those of us that don't to think they really can do whatever they want and do it without consequence. After all, they've been able to do whatever they want before. Why wouldn't they be able to keep doing whatever they want?

There seems to be a fine line between the freedom to do whatever we want and the consequence of a life in prison.

Story Inside

http://www.karenbaobooks.com/

http://www.craigallenjohnson.com/

http://smekday.com/

We attended Tucson's Festival of Books and were pleased to get a chance to interact with numerous authors. We were also able to get these books autographed and talk to them personally about their work.

Check them out.

Ruby Red Goodbye

So many things are lost...

Among them, and more recently, one of our favorite teas.

Diane's recent shopping trip to Trader Joe's led her to discover that their Spiced Rooibos Ruby Red Chai had been discontinued. The staff was very kind about it. They offered her a box of their other Rooibos Tea, which is not a spicy tea at all, or their other Chai Tea, which is a black Tea with the Caffeine that she was trying to avoid.

I did check around online and I have discovered that, like Twinkies in the zombie apocalypse, the last of these boxes is becoming a hot commodity.

I have also found that when you are already feeling a sense of loss, losing something familiar, however small and inconsequential it might seem, causes extra amplified feelings of loss.

Goodby, Ruby Red, goodbye.

Wasteland

"Nothing good comes out of that place. It's a wasteland, as far as I'm concerned."

This is what my neighbor told me, after I shared with him that I just got back from spending a few days in Phoenix.

While the Phoenix area has never been my favorite place, and I think it has nowhere near the natural beauty of the area where I live, I do recall people asking if anything good could come out of another wasteland, a town called Nazareth (You know, hometown of Jesus).

What was I doing up there? I tell you that later.

For now, let me just tell you where I was.

I spent the last few days at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.This hospital is just outside of the "wasteland" that is Phoenix. And I think something good is coming out of there.

If you get a chance, click on the patient services link on the webpage. I think you will get a taste of how this hospital is different.

At first glance, it may just look like a cancer hospital for rich folk, where you can be pampered as you live with the dread disease.

Yes, it is a very nice place, but it is that way for a reason. The purpose of all the amenities is to work to restore hope and dignity to those that have cancer.

The founder of the Centers had a mother who died of cancer. After being a firsthand witness to, not just her battle with the disease, but the battle over her care, he vowed to change the way cancer is treated.

And, they are working hard to do just that. They understand that care for the ill is not just about treating a physical problem, but helping the person with the problem find hope, peace and healing.

I am not intending to toot their horn too much, but I have come to a better understanding of the philosophy of care they promote, and I hope to apply that to the "care" that I give to those assigned to my life.