Taylor and Hall Plead Guilty - No Jail Time For Destroying Rock Formation

In the middle of March, just past, two former Boy Scout leaders, Glenn Taylor and David Hall both pled guilty to felony criminal mischief charges, thus avoiding jail time.  I thought the deal was a little lax, since the men are only on probation for one year.  But they will be making restitution, only so far no one has decided what that restitution will be.  You see, Taylor and Hall destroyed a natural rock formation in Utah's Goblin Valley State Park while they were leading a troop of boy scouts on a nature hike.  This formation, a balanced boulder, was believed to be over 170 million years old.  So how much money could these men pay that would make up for the damage they caused?  As I said before, the formation was priceless, and any amount these men could reasonably be forced to pay would not replace the treasure that was lost.

Both men were immediately booted out of Boy Scouts for violating the Scouts' "no traces" policy.  The men not only violated one of the most fundamental rules of scouting, but did so while "leading" some young scouts.  I hope that the scouts learned the lesson of not destroying the environment rather than the lesson of how "fun" it can be to have the power to knock down a balanced rock.  But then one of these great scout leaders, Mr. Hall tried to justify this action, amid WORLDWIDE outrage, by creating the lame excuse that they were trying to save lives.  Really???  His own words:

Some little kid was about ready to walk down here and die, and Glenn saved his life by getting the boulder out of the way, so it’s all about saving lives here in Goblin Valley.

It's all about saving lives here in Goblin Valley, is it, Mr. Hall?  Lame...lame.  Like I said above, I am not sure that one year of probation is severe enough, and no amount of money these men could afford to pay would restore the formation.  We humans tend to say anything we can when we are the focus of outrage and of possible criminal prosecution, but Mr. Hall's feeble claim that Mr. Taylor was acting only to save a life was as ludicrous as Mr. Taylor's action in destroying the formation was outrageous.  Again, I hope the Boy Scouts who witnessed this most outrageous act learned to follow their scouting credos rather than follow the example set by these two men.

Whether the penalty was severe enough or not aside, I appreciate very much that the State of Utah went forward with the prosecution.  I hope very strongly that the relatively light sentence will still serve as a deterrent for future would-be "nature vandals."  Wouldn't it be nice if vandals just broke their own stuff rather than ruining things that belong to others, especially a natural treasure like that balanced rock, that belonged to all the people?

Our Heroes At Ft. Hood - Forced Into Combat, Unarmed!

Once again a multiple-shooting has shattered the lives of our heroes and their families at Ft. Hood, and once again, the shooter was one of their own.  I join with thousands of people across the nation in sympathy for our soldiers and their families.  Although I keep repeating to myself the question, how can this happen again?, the answer is the same as always: We are human, and humans are capable of both compassion and senseless violence.  Beyond that, however, I have no answer.  But I do have a question: Why, after the tragedy of the first shooting at Ft. Hood in 2009, then the most recent shootings at the naval base outside Washington D.C., are increased security measures NOT in place?  President Obama assures us that "we will get to the bottom of this!"  OK, but why did we not "get to the bottom of this" after the 2009 tragedy?  Weren't you the Commander In Chief THEN, as well, Mr. Obama?  Have you let five years elapse without "getting to the bottom" of the Ft. Hood shooting?  Have none of your "czars" come up with any ideas?  What about the top brass of the armed forces?  Have they not gotten to the "bottom" of things, either, five years later?

I do not know everything, as I proven time and again, but I can spot an absurdity when I see one.  It is positively absurd that no one at the largest armed forces facility in the world (save a handful of military police) are armed.  Like I said, I do not know everything, but...I think I would have learned from the 2009 tragedy that more people on post (after all there are literally THOUSANDS of trained soldiers at Fort Hood) need to be armed.  Yes I know there are military police, but like civilian police, they are not always at the right place when they are needed.  Fort Hood is a facility that spreads out for hundreds of square miles in central Texas.  The base consists of hundreds of buildings, physical plants, training fields, and other facilities.  The military police cannot possibly watch the entire base all the time.  I wonder why, in light of the 2009 tragedy, that Army leadership or the great Commander In Chief HIMSELF did not develop a plan to arm selected personnel at each separate facility or location?  I know they have enough weapons there to accomplish this!  Personnel are armed when they "pull" guard duty in hostile environments abroad; why not do the same thing at bases on American soil? After all, Major Nidal Hasan demonstrated in 2009 that Ft. Hood could be a hostile environment.

Ironically (or stupidly), the Army responded to the Hasan shooting by FURTHER RESTRICTING weapons on Fort Hood property.  Government issued weapons are under lock and key, and soldiers are not permitted to have personal weapons on base or to exercise their 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms while on base.  As usual, this restriction assures that conscientious and law-abiding service men and women are unarmed at the time they most need their weapons: when confronted by nuts and terrorists, and the police are five minutes or more away!  Again, how absurd, when they are sitting on the largest weapons cache in the United States!  But we cannot trust soldiers to have guns other than in combat, you say?  Well, we cannot sit back and watch while people bent on killing are able to come onto military bases bearing firearms while our trained soldiers are left defenseless.  I say that we (our government and military leaders) DID force our soldiers into combat situations UNARMED, in both Fort Hood shootings and the Navy Yard shootings as well, by allowing only the police to have weapons.

So, in the wake of the latest military base multiple-shooting, I praise our heroes, both the dead and the survivors, and I join in the national wave of sympathy for their families and friends, and their colleagues.  And I call on our leaders to arm some of the soldiers at each facility.  I am not calling for ALL soldiers to be armed, but certainly a number could be armed on a day by day basis.  When a soldier is serving as the armed guard, he should have no other duties, whether his regular duties or police-type duties; his or her sole function should be to guard the safety of the personnel as they are at work.  I think this is a workable plan.  Unfortunately I do not believe this will be the last shooting on a military base.  Why not learn from this experience, finally, and let our soldiers protect themselves?  Let's stop forcing them to go into combat unarmed.



 

Winning The Lottery, or Hi, Old Friend!!!

A few days ago many of us learned that a friend and former schoolmate (oh, did I add REALLY DEAR FRIEND!!! wink wink) had the good fortune to win big in the lottery.  I am happy for my dear (REALLY DEAR, DEAR, wink wink) friend and her husband for their good fortune.  All kidding aside, it was wonderful news and no doubt welcome news for D and K.  (No other ID will be used in this blog for the purposes of safety.)  But I have to ask, how many of you ran out and bought a bunch of lottery tickets, either scratch-off games or the lotto-type games?  Come on, get those hands UP!

Well, I bought a couple of lottery tickets myself this week, so far though, not breaking even.  But I wanted to check on the lottery, or rather the ODDS of winning big.  As for the scratch off games, the chances of winning big are slim and vary game by game, but in all these games scratching of a dollar winner is fairly easy to do.  It turns out that the odds of winning the original Texas Lotto game are about 1:25,000,000.  Even the odds of matching only FIVE of six numbers are about 1:18,000.  I confess to playing Texas Lotto almost every week, never mind that I have donated MUCH MORE to the State of Texas than I have won.  Since 1992, I have won less that $150.  It is safe to say that I have spent at least $1,000 in my efforts to capture the big one.  Well, I can always hope!  And, as they (the Lottery Commission) are fond of saying, "you can't win if you don't play!"  What can I say?  Though I have never won, "hope springs ETERNAL!!"

It is a given that winning the lottery, no matter which game you may choose, is almost against all odds.  The odds of getting struck by lightning in the United States in any one year is 1:700,000.  That is pretty comforting for me, because I like to watch the wild thunderstorms of West Texas.  But wait, here is one more number, one that puts a damper on the weather-watching.  While the chance of getting struck by lightning in any one year is astronomical, the chance of getting struck by lightning ONCE in your lifetime is only 1:3,000.  So, be careful going to buy a lottery ticket during a thunderstorm!  One in three thousand...if you think about that, in a town of, say, twenty-four thousand people there could be at least eight people who have been struck by lightning (assuming of course that none of these strikes were fatal).

Having not been struck by lightning yet, I continue to play the lottery.  One of the games I like to play now is the Powerball game.  The jackpot for this game WITHOUT hitting on the powerball is $100,000 and the odds of winning are about 1:5,100,000.  But, if the one playing the game also picks the winning "power ball," the jackpot can be in the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS.  You want to hear the odds of hitting on all five numbers AND the powerball?  Those odds are listed at 1:175,223,510.  In other words, you are more likely to get struck by lightning while a shark bites you as you are water skiing around the Great Barrier Reef than you are to win Powerball.  Yet, the odds are that each time Powerball is played, somewhere in the United States (or Canada) at least one person WILL win the big one!  And as they say, "you can't win if you don't play."  I will continue to play, and more than likely, I will simply support the State of Texas.  But it will be fun trying to beat the odds, just like my (DEAR, DEAR, DEAR wink wink) friend did last week.  Congratulations to my friend, and happy gambling to the rest of us!

Last Watch: Officer Marc Kelley, Trinity University Police (San Antonio) - March 12, 2014

Officer Marc Kelley is the first Texas Peace Officer to die in the line of duty this year.  Officer Kelley was responding to a fire alarm on the Trinity University Campus.  As he walked through the building where the fire alarm was located, Officer Kelley began having severe difficulties breathing.  His radio was equipped with an officer emergency alarm, which the officer was able to activate before losing consciousness.  Other police officers and fire fighters and arrived and rendered CPR; however, Officer Kelley never regained consciousness.

Officer Marc Kelley was only forty-one years old, young to have suffered a heart attack.  Unfortunately many police officers over the years have suffered heart attacks while performing their duties, sometimes not knowing they had heart problems prior to the fatal heart attack.  Officers in their twenties have suffered heart attacks while in police academies, in similar circumstances as when young athletes have collapsed during sports practice or just after.  Officers who die due to illness while performing their duties should be, and hopefully are, honored in the same degree as officers killed by criminals or in police pursuits.  These officers, though they died in less dramatic circumstances, still made the ultimate sacrifice, and still have a place of honor in that Thin Blue Line over yonder, that is ever growing, as these officers join their fallen but now risen colleagues on a Brighter Shore.

I am proud to honor Officer Kelley in this small blog, and thank him for his sacrifice.  I offer my sympathy to his mother, brother, and niece, as well as to his fellow officers who have lost a partner and friend.  Rest in peace, Officer Kelley. 

Grackles

Pardon me today for venturing into an area better handled by a nature show host, but I would like to take this time to mention one of those birds that we love to hate...and maybe kind'a love too: the Boat-Tailed Grackle.  Grackles are those big, annoying black birds that hang around by the hundreds, covering courthouse lawns, filling beautiful trees with their annoying black bodies, and filling the air for blocks around with their oh, so irritating cackling, screeching, and chirping that goes on almost non-stop until it is time for owls and other creatures of the night to go on the hunt.  But this morning I saw a grackle doing something both entertaining for me, and practical for the bird.

I stopped Friday morning at Home Depot, and as I parked my vehicle, I saw a grackle feeding itself by walking up to the front of a recently parked vehicle, taking aim, and jumping about two feet off the ground to reach freshly killed insects stuck in the grill of said vehicle.  I have to concede that as irritating as grackles are, they are also very smart and enterprising birds.  These birds are definitely at home in the urban environment, from their numbers, obviously surviving and thriving even though we humans have tried to thin their numbers over the years.  And I have actually come to enjoy these birds sometimes, but that was not always the case.

As a youngster I wanted to have a yard full of cardinals, blue jays, bunting, sparrows, mockingbirds, ANYTHING but GRACKLES.  Beside the noise and the fact that grackles took up valuable space in my local ecosystem, these birds often kept other birds at bay.  I lived at a house that had a fairly wooded backyard, and a big, beautiful magnolia tree in the front yard.  And the birds...well, just grackles, you guessed it!  So I spent several years nursing a grudge against those awful, noisy blackbirds, but...then I moved to Surfside Beach.  That is where I gained a little more respect for these little pests. 

I was a permanent resident of Surfside Beach for just over a year, and it was there that the true cleverness of the grackle was revealed to me.  My next-door neighbor, a life-long beach bum and a one-time nationally ranked surfer, had actually made friends with a certain grackle who seemed to be the grand-daddy of all the grackles that hung around our house.  My surfer friend had, in fact, taught this particular grackle to come knock, I mean, peck on the door, at which time my neighbor would let the bird into his home.  The bird had learned a number of vocal and sign commands, and would do certain simple tricks at my neighbor's command.  The bird would eat at my friend's table, take food from his hands, and even try to say a couple of words, though these I thought were understandable by other grackles only.  Possibly my friend could understand the bird's talk, too, because he "expanded his mind" several decades ago on some substance or another, and kept it from contracting over the years since then with liberal applications of cannabis.  The bird would also fly to my friend and land on his hand or his shoulder, depending on the signal.  This bird was so much fun to watch that I had to yield my more or less hatred of these birds to some degree, actually gained a bit of respect and liking for these birds.

The pleasure was from watching that old grackle perform his tricks.  The respect was not only for same, but also for the way these birds had not only adapted to the beach, but thrived in the that ecosystem, though they were competing with other birds and animals specifically designed for such an environment.  The grackles jumped right in with the sea gulls and crabs when it came to catching fresh food or scavenging among the gifts offered by each passing tide.  And like the sea gulls, grackles often bore lasting memories of getting too close to something with teeth that was floating just below the sea's surface: they often had only one leg, the other having been bitten off by those creatures unknown.  It turns out that grackles are quite resourceful birds, no matter where they are found.  Unfortunately where they are found includes all of Texas, even way out in the sand and tumble weeds.  No, grackles will never be my favorite bird, but I have come to realize they are rather smart little critters, very resourceful, and sometimes fun to watch.  Well, I hope this little view of bird-life has been a little entertaining, and I appreciate your indulgence in letting me do a nature show in today's blog.

Today in Texas - 1836

Today in 1836, before the sun had risen over the former Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Mexican Army led by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had killed all the Texican defenders barricaded behind its walls.  As one witness said, the silence was profound and deafening after the battle ended.  Santa Anna himself stood by as the few survivors were allowed to gather their belongings and begin the long trek east.  Mrs. Dickinson, the lately widowed wife of one of the defenders, and her entourage were likely nearly to Austin by the time a huge funeral pyre was set ablaze by Don Francisco Antonio Ruiz, the Alcalde of San Antonio.  All the bodies of the dead Texicans were incinerated in the huge fire.  The Alcalde stated that there were one hundred and eighty-two Anglo-Americans placed in the fire.  The dozen or so Mexicans who were among the Alamo defenders were allowed Catholic burials by Santa Anna. 

The Battle of the Alamo lasted less than one hour after the Mexican Army charged the mission for the third and final time.  Once the walls and doors were breached, vicious hand-to-hand fighting commenced.  The choreography of that final combat was outlined with the bodies of the fallen soldiers as the Texicans retreated further and further inside the Alamo compound.  By the time Colonel Jim Bowie and his slave were killed in Bowie's bedroom, all the Texicans and at least 600 Mexican soldiers lay dead on the floors of the one-time Spanish mission. 

Today we honor the dead heroes, whose sacrifice at the Alamo made possible the Texas victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.  Most of the heroes of the Alamo were common men.  Today when we think of the Battle of the Alamo we usually remember just four people: William Barrett Travis, Jim Bowie, David (Davy) Crockett, and of course, the evil Santa Anna.  But I would like to take this time to honor all the dead equally, as the three most famous defenders would not have held the Alamo for even one hour without those other, nearly forgotten, citizen soldiers.

I would also like to honor the Mexican soldiers who fell that day.  They, too, were mostly ordinary men who were selected by Destiny to meet their fate hundreds of miles from their homes back in Mexico proper.  These men, every bit as brave as the Texicans, obeyed their orders without question and followed their commanders into Eternity that morning.  You see, the Mexican troops, for the most part, were armed with obsolete muskets that the Mexican government had purchased from Napoleon.  These weapons were smooth-bore weapons with an effective range of about three hundred yards.  They were intended to be fired into a standing opponent massed in ranks directly in front of the charging force.  By contrast, most of the defenders were armed with rifled muskets that were capable of accurate fire at over seven hundred yards.  The first two or three hundred Mexican soldiers never got within a hundred yards of the Alamo before they were cut down by Texas forces.  A little known aside regarding the Mexican Army was that many of the soldiers' wives and other relatives had followed them from across the Rio Grande into Texas and then continued with them for the three hundred or so miles from El Paso to San Antonio.   Those women were there and watched as their husbands were sacrificed in the service of their country.  How very sad must have been that terrible sight and the mourning that followed.  I do not believe it is unpatriotic to acknowledge the bravery of the Mexican soldiers nor to sympathize with the widows and families of those brave men even as we honor our own heroes.

In all likelihood the Battle of the Alamo would not have taken place at all if Fate had not decreed the meeting of two arrogant men so long ago in 1836.  For one, Jim Bowie had been sent by General Sam Houston to the Alamo with express and specific orders to destroy the useful buildings and then bring the provisions and artillery back to Houston's forces in East Texas.  Instead, Bowie decided that the Alamo could be defended.  He disobeyed Houston's direct orders and fortified the Alamo.  Second, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, himself a very arrogant man, decided that he needed to prove a point to the Texicans by killing all the Alamo defenders and destroying the mission compound.  By the time Santa Anna ordered the breaching of the Alamo walls, he knew that neither the doomed men in the Alamo nor the fort itself were very important to the outcome of the rebellion. 

General Santa Anna could have ended the Texas Revolution in just a few weeks by simply bypassing the Alamo, leaving a couple of hundred of his soldiers to wait out the starving Texicans, and continuing on to meet and destroy Houston's forces that were then in training near Fort Velasco.  But Santa Anna opted to force the battle.   His own generals counseled against the March 6th attack, as they knew the cost of taking the fortified mission would be much too dear for the little advantage to be gained.  Santa Anna knew what the cost would be as well, but chose to sacrifice his men rather than wait a few days and simply starve out the Texas soldiers.  But the die was cast, the Alamo was attacked, and today in 1836 one of the most famous battles of all time was fought, and was etched forever into history.   The Battle of the Alamo paved the way for the creation of the Republic of Texas, and ten years later, the great State of Texas. 

Remember The Alamo!  And God bless Texas!

 

Officer Padron's Killer Gets Death Penalty

The killer of Officer Jaime Padron, deservedly received the death penalty in Austin last week.  As is my habit, I will not mention the killer's name here, as I choose not to dignify him by extending that courtesy.  Officer Padron was one of the most respected members of the Austin Police Department, but even more, he was one of those rare officers that had earned the respect of many Austin residents as well.  On the day of his death, he was attempting to treat his killer with respect and dignity, but the killer instead chose to attack the officer.  Unfortunately, the killer used the physical attack as a ruse to pull out a pistol and shoot Officer Padron.  With the officer disabled, the killer then PRESSED THE BARREL OF HIS PISTOL TO JAIME'S NECK AND PULLED THE TRIGGER AGAIN.  The medical examiner proved that the barrel was pressed into the officer's skin.  Jaime Padron at that point was no longer able to protect himself and had only minutes more to live.

In what has to be one of the most unselfish acts of bravery and love of their fellow man, several unarmed Wal-Mart employees tackled the killer and disarmed him, at deadly risk to their own lives.  Jaime Padron's last act as a police officer was to summon aid for himself and for the men holding the killer.  Police responded immediately, as did paramedics, but by then the officer had passed away.  I once again commend those brave citizens who came to this officer's aid and captured the armed killer, holding him until other officers arrived.  The community of police officers and of Austin residents lost a true hero that day, but also gained some heroes.

Jaime Padron was not just a well respected police officer.  He was also former corrections officer, and before that, a hero who served our nation in Iraq.  He was a brave man, but not just brave.  He was concerned for his fellow man, enough so to volunteer to serve in that faraway land, daily risking his life for all of us.  But not only that, he was well respected by his soldier comrades, going out of his way to help his fellow soldiers and be a friend to them.  Art Acevedo, the Chief of Police, said of Jaime Padron, “He wasn’t just taken from us, the Austin Police Department and his law enforcement colleagues. He was taken from this community.”

So I commend the jury in Austin who were strong enough to weigh the evidence, including the defense from "left field" that the killer was addicted to Xanax, tried to "wean" himself from the addiction, and that because of the effects of the drug AND the effects of the withdrawal from the drug, the killer just could not stop himself from concealing a pistol, going to his local Wal-Mart store and creating a disturbance so that police would be summoned to the store.  He just could not stop himself from killing the first police officer that showed up.  The jury may have sympathized with the killer and his supposed diminished emotional state, but they did not buy into the idea that the killer had no control over his actions.  The defense was ludicrous.  And it did not work.  I know, you can't blame a lawyer for trying...that is his job.

So now the killer is off to prison.  He will of course go to death row, will have an automatic appeal paid for by the state.  He may be a resident of death row for a long time before the sentence is carried out.  He has already had two years longer to live than he allowed Officer Padron.  Sometimes the justice system seems to let the people down, but sometimes it works like it is supposed to.  In this case the killer is awaiting the reward due him for his deed.  The death of this killer will not bring the good officer back, but it will certainly keep this particular man from ever killing anyone (other than fellow prisoners) ever again.  The family and friends of Officer Jaime Padron will go on grieving their loss, whether the killer lives or dies.  May the Good Shepherd continue to comfort all these people as they carry one without Jaime in their lives.