Good luck, Ernie

I have a great deal of fellow feeling for Nebraska Senator Ernie Chambers in his effort to sue God for "death, destruction, and terrorization of millions." So much, in fact, that should the senator actually win a settlement, presumably monetary, but, considering the assets and capabilities of the Defendant (or is it Respondent?), I suppose anything is possible as redress, court calendars in all jurisdictions eligible to administer this matter will suddenly be booked solid for centuries.

But while I'm waiting for resolution on this litigation, I'll get on with other things, such as actually dealing with the admittedly sometimes crummy hand dealt me by the Deity in His, Her, Its, or Their wisdom, as the case may be.

police and deaf citizens

As the parent of a deaf child, I worry. My son has no hearing, so if, like they do on TV, a police officer ever yelled, for instance, "Stop or I'll shoot," if he was standing behind my son, my son would not stop. Not because he's a criminal, but because he can't hear the command.

I wrote, several years ago, to ask our police department what steps they were taking/had taken to prevent this sort of tragedy. I got a lukewarm and unspecific assurance that it probably wouldn't happen. Cold comfort, that.

The NAD newsletter came today, with a disturbing story of an encounter between police and a deaf man. Here it is:

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) reaffirms its commitment to effective communication between people who are deaf or hard of hearing and police officers. Recent incidents involving police officers and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing remind us that our commitment must be ongoing.

For example, in November 2006, Douglas Bahl of Minnesota was pulled over by police for failing to stop at a red light. Bahl is deaf. Bahl tried to use gestures and paper and pen to communicate with the police officer. The police officer used physical force. Bahl was arrested. After being treated at a hospital for his injuries, Bahl was taken to a jail where he spent four days without access to a TTY to make a phone call and without interpreter services, despite repeated requests for these accommodations. On September 14, 2007, Bahl was convicted of obstructing the legal process without force.

Sadly, Bahl is not the first deaf or hard of hearing person to encounter communication problems with law enforcement officers. The NAD has represented deaf or hard of hearing individuals in disability discrimination complaints against law enforcement agencies when those individuals were arrested and held in jail without access to a TTY to make a phone call or interpreter services to communicate effectively with police. As a result of those complaints, the NAD has obtained favorable legal rulings and settlement agreements requiring law enforcement agencies to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including qualified interpreter services and TTYs.

I am glad that the National Association for the Deaf (http://www.nad.org/) is taking some action on this situation. Deafness may not be that widespread a disability, but even one fatality from ignorance and failure to take action is too many.

Senate tries to censure people who disagree with Bush

Well well, that's a nice headline. And it's true. Our taxpayer dollars are well spent on this measure in the Senate to censure MoveOn.org, who has, apparently, been telling the Senate, often and at length, that many people in the US do not like things the Bush administration has been doing.

I think this is just the beginning, an opening salvo. I predict that soon Senators will be bringing in selected pieces of their mail and introducing measures to censure particular offensive letter-writers. "This lady doesn't like my voting record on health care!" "No! Give her contact info to my staff, and we'll add the old bat to our censure-everyone-who-hurts-our-feelings measure!"

Ah, our government in action.

religious books removed from prison shelves

Today's NYTimes tells me that the Federal Bureau of Prisons is removing "religious" books from its shelves. The stated purpose is to make it harder for militant Muslim and other groups to recruit there.

Wow, a single directive demonstrating both smaller government in action, and the religious tolerance that my grade school teachers claimed was the hallmark of the United States (aka the greatest country in the world).

And, instead of a list of prohibited materials, prisons are to limit their religious sections to titles from a list of approved works. Thus, the Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, NY, which had "a very extensive library of Jewish religious books, many of them donated," has removed 75% of those works. Because, as we know, a key recruitment tool of militant Islamic fundamentalists is a library of Jewish religious titles.

The fun thing about this is that, while the public is not entitled to see the list of approved books, religious folk who have gotten a peek at it are bemused by the omissions and inclusions.

Timothy Larsen, who holds the Carolyn and Fred McManis Chair of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, an evangelical school, looked over lists for “Other Christian” and “General Spirituality.”

“There are some well-chosen things in here,” Professor Larsen said. “I’m particularly glad that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is there. If I was in prison I would want to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” But he continued, “There’s a lot about it that’s weird.” The lists “show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,” he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.

The Rev. Richard P. McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame (who edited “The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism,” which did make the list), said the Catholic list had some glaring omissions, few spiritual classics and many authors he had never heard of.

“I would be completely sympathetic with Catholic chaplains in federal prisons if they’re complaining that this list is inhibiting,” he said, “because I know they have useful books that are not on this list.”

While I suppose it's counterproductive to have a library full of inflammatory religious literature in a place where violence is all too common, limiting religion to a skewed list of 150 titles seems excessive.

Craig

What happened to Larry Craig is what the Republican Party is all about: hypocrisy and hatred. This is family values? So many things about this story to comment on, but first, how do I get a job on the sex police force? I keep reading everyone applauding the arrest because they want their children to be able to go into public restrooms unmolested. Well, good luck with that. What are they doing sending their kids alone into public places anyway? Last time I looked, it is possible, even probable, that you will be exposed to something objectionable any time you leave the house (or when you simply stay home and turn the TV on). I am so sick of people hiding behind values and child welfare in their relentless and neurotic quest to eliminate every conceivable risk.

Shit happens people. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Wake up now, because if you stay asleep much longer, you'll have no freedoms, no human rights, and no Constitution. Apparently, the Soviet Union collapsed only to resurface here in the States.