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I guess I spend a lot of time in my blog giving the story as to how I come up with topics for the day soooo…. Today as I was reading the headlines of the news on my Yahoo page.   I clicked on an article about the man behind the Bernie Madoff stock scandal.  From what I garnered the individual was very helpful to the FBI when the bubble burst.  He was very helpful in securing a long sentence for his boss.  When he went into court the other day he expressed his remorse in his connection with the swindle and plead guilty.  All is going well for everyone at this point.  All according to plan.  Everything nice and tidy. ” I got the big fish and I will soon be free. ” At least that is what I think he would think?

From the article the import was that the defendant was a little put off when the judge ordered him remanded into custody of the jail instead of being released with bail or his own recognisance.  The judge thought that in spite of his testimony and guilty plea that the defendant needed to be incarcerated until sentencing.  It may be until 2010 and he is looking at 125 years total.  What amount he gets will most likely be substantially less than that number though. 

I guess that I am surprised that the judge kept him incarcerated.  Why is this judge no longer in the “good ol’ boys club ?”  It would seem that this was a cookie cutter case for every one but the judge.   Because this defendant had money(any part of a billion is big in my book …much less 65 billion) the defendant had a high profile attorney or attorney’s.  The attorney’s are well connected in the whole scheme of things.   Most likely  his lawyers regularly have martini’s with the judicial hierarchy.   It appeared to be all cut and dried.  Then the hammer fell.  No freedom.  Immediate incarceration.  Looking at a 125 years for his guilty plea.  The judge got it right.  It is time to pay.  From the top down. 

I spend a great deal of time considering the way I treat my son.  I am the judge.  I am the defense attorney, and the district attorney when it comes to dealing with his actions.  I have a few axioms “We always share” , “If it ain’t yours don’t touch it”, “Look but don’t touch”, “IF your not early you are late”, “Say what you do and do what you say”, “if you feel the need to lie about something than you should not have been doing it”. IF Mama is not happy no one is happy” ,   I am sure that there are more.   I have not made them up just yet.  

When dealing with my son I need to see that his actions speak the same as his words.  I mention this because the judge in the court case must have seen something in the man’s attitude that deserved the deviation from the “good ol’boy’s club”.  IT is obvious that the defendant in the case mentioned failed according to US law and he failed miserably in Kirk’s court as well.  When I meat out justice in Kirk’s court it is contingent upon the defendant to show appropriate remorse and contrition.  In other words getting mad at me for handing out a fair sentence not only does not curry favor with the judge it actually makes the sentence even worse.  The designed effect of this lesson is to show that if one is truly sorry for what one has done one must be willing to accept the punishment no matter what is handed out.   In Kirk’s court it has been eight years and counting and Kellen is still not able to grasp what his judge(Father) is trying to instill in him.  I have faith that Kellen will eventually come to the fore but I do not think that the defendant in the Madoff scandal did.  Hopefully, his incarceration will open his eyes to the laws of the US which he must adhere.   He has almost a year to think about it before he will be sentenced.  It is to bad that this defendant did not have Kirk’s axiom’s engrained  into his phychie like Kellen will/does.  If he had all of this would have stopped a long time ago!!

Comments (0) Aug 12 2009

As is usually the case my wife and I were sitting around the kitchen table this morning doing our morning thing of banter, coffee, internet, coffee, TV, coffee, wake up of the kids, and more coffee.  It is here that I get the information of the day.  During one of the news breaks  provided by the local TV station in Temple, Texas we were informed of a soldier who was going to the brig for disobeying a direct order.  He was sentenced to 30 days hard labor, demoted to private, and most likely put out of the army upon completion of his sentence.  

A little background information.   Age 24, male, joined in 2005, already served a tour in Iraq, soldier of good standing, then refused a direct order to go back to Iraq.

Why is  this of interest to me?  I am not a former serviceman.  Consequently I do not have any war stories.  Although the war of excuses that I have lived may or may not be harrowing I am sure that this soldier does have harrowing stories.  I connected to this serviceman because of my respect for him. 

Respect by defintion is: 

I do have great repsect for his judgement.  He has done something that I chose not to do.  He chose to enter into the military.  I chose not to enter the military.  By making that choice to enter into the military he chose to deploy to Iraq.  I chose not to. (I know that I was not into the military but with my writing style I need all the help I can get to make this seem like we have something in common)  Soooo…all we have in common is choice ?  Well au contraire?…!  I relate to him by what I live by, “Do what you say and Say what you do.  Simple but covers it all if one lives up to the code.   A code innate to any honorable man.  What is fair is fair…correct?   I think this soldier is an honorable man and I will tell you why.  He has been there, He has done that, and he doesn’t want to do it again,  and he is willing to bear the consequences of his actions.  He is doing something that I may or may not agree with but I can certainly stand behind his obvious determination to do what he thinks is right.

I always tell my wife that I am willing to do most anything once…as long as it is not illegal, immoral, or draws blood.  When I do it a second time it is because I want to do it.  I climbed a rock wall in a quarry once.  Won’t do that again…willingly..??!  I took a certain friend of mine hunting on my boat once…Won’t do it again…ever!  I even attempted a deer hunt in Southeast Alaska using a river boat to travel the sea.  Won’t do that again for sure!  Ya,  I know I have a million of them.  OK,  one more.  I worked on an oil burning furnace ignitor’s electrical system once…I got shocked!!!  Need I say more?

So what I am saying is that I understand the commitment.  Only he knows what he experienced in Iraq.  Only he knows the justification that would cause him to loose his status in the military by his refusal to submit to a lawful order.  I must admit that if he had entered into the military and refused the first order to go to Iraq I would have a different mind set.  There is conscientious objector status plus some other considerations but it is not in the same venue so it is incomparable.  Everyone reaches their limit.  I know that I have reached many limits in my life because of the code that I live by.  Apparently, his limit had been reached.  I can respect that.

I am pretty sure that this soldier is going to be put out of the arm.  I am also pretty sure that he will recieve either a less than honorable discharge to a dishonorable discharge from the Army.  Because of my code this soldier will have to bear the consequences without me giving any support what so ever.  He admits his guilt.  It is not like this kid chickened out.  Can’t someone come to the point where they just do not want to do it anymore?  I have …and have already stated some of them.  Today’s professional soldier must consider death and all of its ramifications up to an including their own death.  Is not offering up one’s life in service of your country once …enough?  Hmmm… Not according to my code.  I hate codes……..!

Comments (0) Aug 06 2009

In  the news this morning Ellen and I were watching the arrival of the two journalists that were detained and tried in North Korea in March of this year.  We had been discussing how this kind of thing works.   One needs to hand it to Bill Clinton for his euphoric charisma that exudes from his person during these tense times.   Yet what really hit me when viewing the scene on TV was the mother of a young child hugging her young daughter.  It wasn’t a hug of greeting.  It was not the perfunctory hug given to children when returning from school.  It appeared to be a hug of desperation.  An act of completion.  A return to being whole again. 

Four months is not a long time in an adults mind.  I remember my freshman year in high school.  The thought of nine weeks of Algerbra almost made my knees weak and trembling.  A whole semester(which is close to four months) almost made me sick.  Then there were the months of seperation during my first marriage.  It really wasn’t a long time yet it still seems an interminable amount of time.   I spent many seasons in construction camps working 7 days a week for four months.  After I married Ellen I often was away from her and the kids for four months or more.  

Where am I going with this?  The distinct difference between my separation and those of the journalist on TV is choice.  True she did make a choice to be involved with news and investigations.  It is true that she went to an area of the world where one is constantly in danger.  I did similar things many many times!!!!  I have to live with those separations.  As does she.  But the moment that choice changes  to no choice or complete lack of control it changes.  Never once have I ever been in a situation that I did not have the freedom for complete access to movements, to my residence, to my friends,  or to my family until…..  

Funny how an instant changes the way you think.  It was recently aboard ship while we were on our latest cruise.  Kellen had asked to go to the kid camp provided by the tour ship.  All I needed to do was show up at 12 o’clock to pick him up.  I am red faced as I type this…  As it happens I was on the Lido deck enjoying the company of my wife and new friends aboard ship.   We had an hour and a half to wake up and to discuss with these friends the plan for our upcoming day at sea.  Everyone was fun.   The conversation was constant.  Needless to say I was having a very good time.  At  12:26 PM I realized that I had failed to pick up Kellen from the kid camp.  I flew out of the chairs with my feet barely touching the sun scorched floors of the ship.  Inside the ship to the starboard door of the camp.  Locked!!  No lights on.  Panic stricken I run to port side of the ship and another access to the kid camp.  Door was locked their as well.  Where is my son?  The minute loss of control in this instance made my heart beat fast and I was having a hard time breathing.  PANIC!!!

How can four minutes of panic be mitigated?  How can four months of involuntary detention be mitigated?  I will tell you how.  A hug.  After the second door was locked I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off.  Should I go back to the room?  Is he at one of the buffet lines?  Could he have ventured off into the pool area?  How do I tell my wife that I had lost my son?  Standing in front of the elevators doors these thoughts rushed over me.  Thankfully,  the elevator was slow.   I was antsy so I returned to the portside door of the kid camp on Lido deck.  It was there that I spied my son, smiling and waving … happily greeting a panic stricken but relieved parent.  Four miutes is a long time.  The thoughts that must have run through the journalists mind during those four months must be horrendous.  My four minutes practically produced a heart attack.

I remember the hug from my son.  I doubt that he will think it memorable.  I remember the feeling of helplessness.  I also remember the complete giving of a hug by my son.  When I saw the hug by the mother and her child  after four months in a prison with no control I was relieved.   To then return to the one that is loved is a gift that should not ever be experienced.   If one does get to have that experience they should consider themselves very lucky to have the control back.  Seeing that mother hug her daughter as she did,  gave me a commonality to the journalists…however fleeting. ..of a moment in time that we both should never  have experienced but are better people because of it.

Comments (0) Aug 05 2009