Flowers for Firefighters

The funerals for the two Boston firefighters who died on the job provide perspective. We live when an injured cat is called a tragedy and someone who offers any help to a neighbor is called a hero. Instead, guys like Paul Cahill and Warren Payne deserve the hero label. They willing put their lives at risk whenever the bell rang to keep the rest of us safe.

Note: Click an image to see a slightly larger version.

As a Forest Hills Cemetery abutter, I am often there — it's my park. I visited the firefighters' plot and monument following the funerals. In the process of paying respects, I was surprised by some details I learned and the use of the flowers.

Perhaps most obvious was the artistic display at the base of the monument to firefighters. Someone had done an Andy Goldsworthy on the flowers. All around the base of the statue were arrangements sent with the casket, as one might expect. Then beyond each around surrounding the base was a starburst of white, long-stemmed flowers, carefully set out like so many rays from a stylized sun.

The metaphor seemed to be so many fallen firefighters as so many flowers on the ground. Yet, I couldn't find any citations for such symbolism for similar funerals.

However, a neighbor who works at the cemetery had a very plausible explanation. The FH director of operations, Mitch Zakrzewski, went to art school and is a prime mover in the modern sculpture in the cemetery. The staff knew that he has spent a lot of time in the morning before the ceremonies. It seems he was paying his own tribute to Cahill and Payne. If so, good on him.

Flowers were profuse at the monument and the freshly used plot. They covered the burial site and then after the ceremony surrounded it. One had a Boston Police sash. Many were ephemeral, like birds of paradise and quickly browning and shriveling in the 90-plus temperatures. Others such as the roses and orchids seemed to thrive.


Only Warren Payne's body rests at the firefighters' plot. The cemetery does not charge for firefighter burials there. Yet, the Cahill family had other concerns.

His body was cremated and the family will care for them by their own plans.

Hearing that a firefighter would choose cremation was quite a surprise to me. That seems to show equanimity in the constant presence of danger and possibility of sudden death that most of us cannot comprehend. Certainly a firefighter avoids burning to death, but after death there is no more reason not to create the body than there would be for any of us.

Perhaps too, it shows a refined sense of humor and acceptance of our shared fate.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, firefighters, Paul Cahill, Warren Payne, Andy Goldsworthy, Forest Hills Cemetery

What is best in life, Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Conan the Bigot gets a new chance to surprise his troops and to choose liberty. Any bets?

Today for a second time, the California legislature, the elected bodies in a representative democracy, presented him with a same-sex marriage bill (AB43) passed by both houses. It is law in California, needing only Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature. Any bets?

According to the Sacramento Bee, Schwarzenegger pledged again to veto the passed bill. He has his seven-year-old ballot initiative (proposition 22) disapproving SSM. He doesn't need any more democracy than that! In fact, in February, he said there was no need to even think about laws on the subject, "because the people of California have voted on that issue."

Thinking can really hurt small brains.

In contrast, Assemblyman Mark Leno urged the governor to "rise above right-wing ideology, as he has on many other issues, by signing this bill." Any bets?

A few legislators have made it personal, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The first openly gay legislator there, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, said, "Marriage is more than just a civil contract ... it is different from domestic partners, it's just different from civil unions - it means something. And because it means something, that's why it's been denied to us."

The Assembly voted for the bill 42 to 34 and the Senate 22 to 15. Schwarzenegger has a month to sign or veto it. A veto override requires two thirds of both houses, which are clearly not there.

So far, Schwarzenegger has been a typical Republican of the current type. He talks freedom but spits on liberties.

As MassEquality's Marc Solomon said on our Left Ahead! podcast this week about this very subject, "He’s a wimp. You can tell him I said so…I’d put Deval (Patrick) up against Schwarzenegger in an action movie any day."

Arnie needs some 'nads. I don't know that he'll grow any in the next few weeks.

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Tags: massmarrier, California, Schwarzenegger, same sex marriage, Mark Leno, AB43, MassEquality, Marc Solomon, Left Ahead!

Hazing the BPS Parents

Pamplona has its festival, as does Boston. Somewhat like the running of the bulls, the regular hazing of the Boston Public School families continues. A big difference of course is that the buffoons who risk goring by half-ton animals do so by choice.

As a fervent believer in public education, I have endured and largely bested the worst school and School Committee officials have thrown at me. My oldest went through and I have a senior and ninth grader. Through moving to be in the right districts in the old days, visits and other research, and every technique we could use, we have found the good schools among the detritus here and ended up with three kids in advanced work classes and exam schools getting an education at least as good as prep schools'.

Many parents were not so dogged, savvy or perhaps lucky.

Making It Hard

In the process, we benefited from the foolish parents who take their walk-zone schools over vastly superior ones. There are huge discrepancies from one school to the next.

We enjoyed the theater of a purple-faced screeching Michael Contompasis when he was Boston Latin School headmaster, and of the pretentious, luxury-store-bag displaying, foot-stomping Cornelia Kelley who followed him. Also, we almost always failed to get information from the School Committee in person or on the phone. If we saw or spoke to someone at all, each person seemed to make up the answers, which were generally incorrect.

There were a few boy-hating teachers and some that weren't all that bright, but most schools have those. Yet, comparing notes with parents elsewhere, we conclude that Boston is better at discomforting and inconveniencing parents.

After that prolonged wail, the proper response is, "It should not be that hard."

Indeed, considering Horace Mann's ideal of public education as the great equalizer, we are still waiting and working for that. We still see far too many mediocre minds leapfrogging into management and leadership by connections from their rich kids' schooling. The ideal of a meritocracy remains distant as the brightest work for the feeble far too often. Such is our hidden hereditary aristocracy.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Buses!

Back to the hazing, today let us consider the inelegant dance that one must perform for school transit. Over the past two weeks, we have experienced many variations on the I-don't-know or I-can't-be-bothered. It shouldn't be that hard.

The script includes:

• Our youngest is a ninth grader at Boston Latin Academy.
• For the past two years, a yellow bus generally stopped sort of in the neighborhood to take him. At just 14, he is supposed to find his own way and get a T pass to do so.
• Our "***OFFICIAL RANSPORATION NOTIFICATION***" read that kids were supposed to find their own way by T on the opening day and would get a student T pass that day.
• It suggested using the MBTA site for a route. Plugging in the from and to addresses produced three routes, from 44 minutes to well over an hour, with three our four combinations of bus and train, and the train stops are two of the city's roughest and busiest -- Dudley and Jackson.
• The transportation and school hot line numbers provided were constantly busy, likely with other parents being kept ignorant for their hazing.
• Because my BLS student has the option of a special T bus to school, I figured BLA did. While that was true, between them, the T and BPS had not informed the inspectors at Forest Hills what day this would start and whether it would be from the upper or lower level.
• Despite the best efforts of the school system to foil me, I did find a very helpful inspector at Forest Hills, who gave me enough information about how it worked the last school year. My youngest and I showed up at the right time and by keeping checking top and bottom eventually connected with the bus (lower level, berth 8, 6:47 a.m.).
• He came home yesterday without a T pass. I drove him to BLA this morning, located the bus dispatcher there and found that his homeroom teacher had neglected to hand them out. I had to apologize to my son, because I had assumed that he, not the teacher, was not paying attention.

It shouldn't be that hard, and this is the simple stuff.

When I was dealing in person with the Forest Hills crew, I found several helpful and nice inspectors. Two even said what I was thinking. BLA is a good school with smart people. The BPS transportation department has lots of computing power and access to maps and routing information. You'd think that together, they would reflect useful reality on their **OFFICIAL TRANSPORTATION NOTIFICATION***.

Bad Old Days

Even with the yellow bus for the past two years, we were kept alert and scrambling by the school's transportation department. They were unable and unwilling to be consistent in the pickup spot.

I won't even get into the stop choices. The bus passed less than half a block from our house, but the kids had to walk a half mile to the designated stop. Numerous other yellow buses stopped at the foot of our hill, but they couldn't set our bus' stop there for our then 12-year-old. I didn't mind the half mile walk for him and me, but the illogic was troublesome.

The printout we got read that the bus would pick up children on Hyde Park Avenue below Walk Hill Street. Instead, from the first day, the normal pickup stop was on Walk Hill east of Hyde Park.

The fronts of the buses at one of these stops are not visible from the other. There are dozens of buses that come to these corners in a very short time. In addition, if a child were to stand on the corner, ready to run to the right location, it would be across four lanes of traffic at the intersection, almost always with no cross signal and constant cars from several directions.

The fun came two ways. First, if the driver was off, the substitute kept to the original route, stopping at Hyde Park. Of course, you had no way of knowing in advance when there would be a substitute driver. Second, the school transit folk make ordinary bureaucrats look like freethinkers.

Calls and discussions took many times to get through, and then in a real sense you never got through. The folk on the other end would locate and recite the route as though what was on paper had to be reality...repeatedly. When pressed that the driver decided that Walk Hill was quicker, safer and more efficient (I agree), the bus guys wanted to get written permission from the parents involved to "change" where the bus stopped.

The logic that they needed to change the route in the computer so that substitutes would come to the regular stop was impossible for them to comprehend. The fact that all the parents already sent their kids to Walk Hill was irrelevant to them. The other alternative of having the bus stop on the northern side of Hyde Park, where some other school buses stop and where kids on Walk Hill could see the bus and the driver could see them was deemed too difficult too.

Through the two years, reality remained what was on their route sheet, regardless of the corporal and vehicular world. I kept hoping to find a reasonable problem solver there. I suspect if any ever worked for the school transportation department, it was a short tenure.

The effect was numerous mornings when no bus appeared on Walk Hill. The transportation folk suggested that if a driver came to an empty bus stop that should have eight kids, he should look after crossing Walk Hill to see if they are there. That never happened.

Each year, numerous mornings brought a call from a kid with a cell phone saying that the bus didn't show yet again. There were seven such times last year. We would drive kids the two and one-half miles to school. Sometimes I felt quixotic and would discuss it with the bus dispatcher at BLA. He'd complain for me, but there would be no change from his pressure either.

Relief in Sight

There are four more years of BPS. I shall then have finished my duty in support of my belief in public education. It is occasionally (after the fact) amusing to have hundreds of tales of incompetence and indifference or worse after three kids in BPS. In fact, it makes me wish that such hazing was malicious, not stupid. The people running the BPS shouldn't be dummies.

New Superintendent Carol Johnson has just started. She makes squishy promises about better education in schools. Maybe it's too early to let her know that the hazing rituals parents suffer every year cause a hell of a lot of anxiety and inconvenience. I hope the pod people inside the School Committee building don't take over her body and make her one of them.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, public schools, buses, MBTA, Forest Hills, Latin Academy, Horace Mann

Gawking on Bumpkin

To those who knew I was headed to last weekend's Art Encampment on Bumpkin Island, I didn't neglect it. However, I didn't tell folk any coverage would end up on the non-political Harrumph! blog.

There's a little snark, a little insight and a few pix over there on City Slickers Art Up Bumpkin.

Larry Craig Honks His Nose

Amoral politicians seem to have done advanced work in belaboring the obvious. However, they seldom can see what is personally obvious.

David over at BMG called Sen. Larry Craig's hedging on resigning "too hilarious." The full story, as detailed in Craig's local paper, the Idaho Statesman, transcends that:

• He thinks that his equivocating press conference on his disgrace gives him the chance and maybe obligation to stay in the Senate.
• He's going to hold to his fantasy that he was "railroaded."
• He accidentally left a voice mail on a stranger's phone that describes his self-perceived cleverness in planning his fight to stay in D.C.
• He clings to Sen. Arlen Specter's public support in a second fantasy that other Republicans may rally to him.

Sorry, kid, you're legislative roadkill. Your party has cement shoes already in the form of the President's failed policies. They aren't going to jump into the water and die in defense of a hypocritical liar.

I'd love to have a Bush-style phone tap on Craig's lines now. His caucus members must be shouting one after another for him to get the hell out of Washington and not take them down with him. When he finally realizes that they can and will expel him if he doesn't go, he may at long, long last get it.

Craig's words seem to have chiseled the epitaph on the current GOP -- PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY LIES BURIED HERE

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Tags: massmarrier, honesty, closeted, gay rights, Larry Craig, Idaho, Congress

Peeking into MassEquality's Playbook

Over at Left Ahead! yesterday, we had a good time with Marc Solomon. For our podcast, the Campaign Director of MassEquality reprised his what's-next role and more.

Here, I feel a much lesser version of the letdown following the defeat of the anti-marriage-equality amendment in June. For MassEquality, the same-sex-marriage issue is almost settled, although they are in the process of seeing how they can be useful here and elsewhere. Look for an announced strategy is coming months.

Meanwhile, they have not forgotten the 11 legislators who joined the good guys by switching votes, as well as the whole 75% plus one of the legislature. MassEquality and its members are working as volunteers and with contributions to ensure their reelection in the face of threats from the dwindling party of anti-gay/any-equality folk.

It's a wide-ranging podcast. Some of the highlights posted on Left Ahead! follow.

Solomon spoke of their strategy during the battle and what may be next for his organization. We also ranged on what local progressives can do now, to what may happen next in states with DOMA laws and amendments. He also confirmed our feeling that within a few years we may see marriage equality throughout New England.

Among the highlights are:

• "There's no reason why every state in New England shouldn't have mull marriage equality within five years."
  
• Legislators have seen the repercussions of voting for marriage equality, "where were none."
  
• In California, marriage equality opponent and law vetoer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — "He's a wimp. You can tell him I said so...I'd put Deval (Patrick) up against Schwarzenegger in an action movie any day."
  
• Senate President Therese Murray was essential to the amendment defeat. She worked hard from the beginning. "She was very, very dedicated to making this outcome happen." Marc detailed his interactions with her.
  
• Massachusetts had a great advantage in having marriage equality, something to defend rather than just trying to defeat a DOMA law or amendment.
  
• MassEquality "asked our legislature legislative leaders to go out on a huge limb for us" and did not push immediately to overturn the 1913 laws forbidding out-of-state same-sex-couples from marrying here. Yet, Marc expects the legislature to get to repealing them at the end of this session or early next year.
  
• He iterated that his group's prime goal was supporting all legislators who voted against the amendment, starting with the 11 who switched, but keeping all in office in light of anti-equality folk who pledged to defeat them. This includes volunteering and contributing to campaigns.
  

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, amendment, same sex marriage, Marc Solomon, legislature, MassEquality, BayWindows, Therese Murray

Slightly Bitter Grapes in 5th CD

Yes, yes, yes, Niki won and my guy lost. So there.

I dream of a progressive U.S. Congress. When you stop snorting and laughing, you can be aware of why I favored Jamie Eldridge.

We're not going to get that. Niki Tsongas topped the field yesterday and she's likely to 1) skunk her main challenger Republican Jim Ogonowski by a wide total in next month's special election and 2) be an adequate, but not inspired or inspiring Congresswoman.

For What It's Worth: For people who like patterns, symmetry and coincidence, the scuffle between two sympathy/name recognition candidates is very unusual. Niki Tsongas is the widow of beloved U.S. Rep and Senator Paul. Jim's brother was a pilot in one of the 9/11 planes flown into a World Trade Center Tower. Those themes are generally unspoken campaign ploys. She likes to pretend that she got experience by osmosis, even though she distanced herself from her husband's job when he was alive. Jim plays to the patriot base with his tenuous link too. She wins the name recognition factor, but both get emotional boosts. Their family ties won't decide the election though.

The Boston Globe reports that Niki won respectably, but not overwhelmingly, with nearly complete figures of:

• 36% Niki Tsongas
• 31% Eileen Donoghue
• 14% Jamie Eldridge
• 13% Barry Finegold
• 6% James Miceli

I'm sure a G.W. Bush could claim a squeaker like that as a mandate, but the Lowell Sun kept its perspective. Its lead noted, "In a closer than expected finish, first-time office seeker Niki Tsongas held off Lowell's former Mayor Eileen Donoghue to win the Democratic Primary in the 5th Congressional District yesterday."

It was a very small turnout, maybe as low as 7% of voters, half the typical special election average. Donoghue won big in cities like Lowell (two to one) and Niki played best in the wealthy suburbs.

Donoghue ran impressively, clipping Tsongas' commanding lead with every poll. Conventional wisdom could see her winning based on her experience and positions if this race had run a typical Congressional campaign period instead of a shortened replacement one. We'll have to see whether Donoghue is up to attack freshman Tsongas in the next general election.

I certainly prefer a wishy-washy, free-market liberal to a pretty conservative, war-supporting Republican. That to our shame would make her our first woman in Congress in 25 years. That's right; most pop stars were not even born then.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Congress, Eldridge, 5th CD, Tsongas, Finegold, Donoghue, Ogonowski, Miceli

Ruinous Snickers

Clarity in scandal observation surely belongs to the British. While I have my qualms over police intrusiveness, I can't justify the simple-minded lying of the disgraced ex-Senator from Idaho Larry Craig. Over in the Financial Times, it took Gideon Rachman to put the buffoons and buffoonery in perspective.

In his It is the snigger factor that sees off an erring politician, Rachman distinguishes between the survivable blunders and the Craig moments. I don't know that the Brits have had more sex, murder and other scandals than we, but they certainly seem to relish them in greater detail.

Consider such players as:

• Larry Craig — caught in a public restroom obviously to all but himself making repeated overt requests for sex. He is married with kids, denies homosexuality or bisexuality, pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge in an attempt to keep this secret, and may be stupid enough to challenge the bust, thus redisplaying his extraordinarily clumsy lies and deeds. He has been a regular gay basher and sponsor of legislation that would hinder or harm homosexuals.
• Bill Clinton — arrogantly dancing around his adulterous fellatio and cigar moistening with a young woman. He is married with a daughter, lied openly and was impeached but not removed by a vindictive Republican Senate likely still smarting from the Richard Nixon disgrace.
• David Vitter — the Louisiana Senator who was on the customer lists of prostitutes in his state and D.C. He has been a long-term blue nose and moralizer. He is married and allegedly the moral leader for their three daughters. He tried to deny all more than once since 1990.
• Mark Oaten — an MP and leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats used male prostitutes, sometimes multiples simultaneously. He was married with two daughters. He tried claiming that he was under a lot of stress and feeling bad about going bald.
• Ron Davies — the MP and Welsh Secretary managed to produce the most absurd lie, making Craig's I-was-picking-up-paper-from-the-john-floor one almost plausible. Despite photos showing him leaving a gay cruising wooded area, he first claimed not to have been there for 15 years and then that he was looking for badgers.

Does It Make You Laugh?

Rachman puts all this asininity in perspective with the simple test. While the French and Italians may yawn at sexual exploits by politicians, Americans and Brits generally do not. What causes the ruin of some and permits the survival of others seems to be how risible the details and defense are.

Put simply, neither Sen. David Vitter nor President W.J. Clinton lost all dignity. In contrast, badger watching and non-existent paper picking are instant and memorable jokes. Moreover, the always illogical and often delusional columnist Jeff Jacoby was one of several who strained mightily to pretend that Craig's hypocrisy was something else. There may be some brilliant essayist or orator who could manage that deceit, but the small brains at work recently do not have the skills.

Rachman, in far more mannered terminology, noted that lying about a blow job was not justification for removing a president. So Congressional Democrats ended up supporting Clinton. "But he survived politically because – despite all the excruciating details – he never totally lost his dignity. By the end it was his prosecutors and persecutors – with their monotonal, prurient questions – who came to seem rather odder than the president himself."

He added that Clinton was also already perceived as a womanizer. Unlike Vitter or Craig, he did not scold others while behaving in bad ways. Rachman added, "Politicians are often unusual people who have to pretend to be regular guys. When the gap between image and reality becomes too glaring, they begin to look ridiculous and political death follows. Senator Larry Craig is just the latest to learn this bitter lesson."

What causes the ouster of offenders is "the snigger factor – that seems to be the truly fatal element in any sex scandal.":

Lying, hypocrisy, even a little law-breaking – all of that can be survived. But when politicians lose their dignity, they are finished. Frequently, it is the small details of a scandal – and the bizarre little lies – that do the real damage. Mr Craig suffered more than Mr Vitter in large part because far more details of his indiscretion were revealed to a delighted public. Tapping your foot in a public lavatory will never seem safe again. Waving your hand under the cubicle was probably never a great idea.

Levels of Offense

Rachman notes the hierarchy of offenses that combine with the absurdity of defense all well. "Breaking a law is worse than breaking your marriage vows. Gay sex is more politically hazardous than the heterosexual variety. Brazening it out is better than lying."

Unfortunately for Craig, as a conservative, his peers and previous supporters at least feign horror at homosexual activity. In addition, he actually has a conviction of a crime as part of it. "And after admitting to his crime, Mr Craig’s later denials made him look daft and dishonest."

Craig was also naive enough to play the entrapment card with the arresting officer. Yet the details in his arrest transcript indicate that if he tries to overturn the guilty plea and conviction, he will become the clown in the center ring yet again.

It is difficult or impossible for those of us without the compulsion for anonymous sex in public places to understand that drive. On the one hand, it seems our police should not be interfering with consensual adult sexual activity. On the other, it doesn't take much sense to realize that overt sex in public is almost always against the law and just looking for all manner of trouble.

Yet it is the cover-up, the stupid, clumsy, arrogant cover-up that can undo a politician. Sometimes, the sheer absurdity of the details is enough to forever taint the offender. It was bad enough that Clinton quibbled over the definition of is. The paper-retrieving, badger-watching claims push moral lapses into memorable jokes. It might be time to construct a hall of shame for politicians who make themselves the punchlines.

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Tags: massmarrier, honesty, closeted, gay rights, Larry Craig, Idaho, Rachman, Financial Times

That Unique Iowa Marriage

The delightfully impatient Iowa pair of men who raced to marry following a judge's voiding of prohibition against same-sex marriage there. They are a oner. It seems that although 27 homosexual couples applied for marriage licenses and 19 received them, only Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan both paid the $5 to bypass the three-day wait and had their marriage solemnized in the few hours when it was possible.

A Cedar Rapids couple was foiled by driving distance, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Gregory Mathis and his long-term partner Ravi Chandran hied to the Polk County Recorder's office. They arrived shortly after the judge stayed his order permitting SSM in Iowa in the late morning.

Mathis called the office to confirm they were issuing licenses to SS couples. Yet he was not too surprised when he could not get one that morning He said, "It's very disappointing, but I guess it's not new. In the 1970s I didn't get custody of my child because I'm gay. In the 1980s I was excommunicated from my church because I'm gay. I've had a lot of walls thrown up at me because I'm gay, this is just one more."

While two other couples got the exemption from the three-day wait, they did not get married in time.

Yet the prima facie standing of the one SS married couple in the state might well stand, regardless of what the Appeals Court or Supreme Court there eventually rule on any appeal. They certainly married in good faith and were issued their license with no deceit.

It reminds me of the failed attempt to stop SSM here in Massachusetts. Even the groups masquerading as "pro-family" when that's not what they mean at all knew that trying to void existing legal marriages would not pass muster in this nation at this time. The amendment they tried to pass here would have let legal SSMs stand.

In contrast, three years ago, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered his officials to issue SS marriage licenses, he did so on his own. He did not have the legal standing to do so, and those marriages were not valid.

In addition, the Des Moines Register vetted the issue with Stephen Saunders, "a Chicago-based attorney for a group of historians and Iowa legal professors who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the lawsuit, (who) said judges usually avoid breaking up families when the members of the wedding party themselves have done nothing wrong. That means McQuillan and Fritz's marriage could survive intact, even if the Iowa Supreme Court eventually overturns Hanson's decision, he said."

Back in Iowa, the district judge, Scott Rosenberg, is taking heat for expediting the men's marriage. He and other judges routinely do the same for opposite-sex couples who ask and pay the nominal fee. Yet according to the Des Moines Register, the judge's evenhandedness displeases some anti-gay and anti-marriage-equality sorts.

Rosenberg said it would have been political only if he had told them to get lost. As he put it, "If I'm going to grant it for couples that are male and female, then why all the sudden should I change because a couple is the same sex?" Well, that didn't cut it for the Iowa Family Policy Center's president, Chuck Hurley, J.D. Fairly huffing himself into breathing trouble, he called the judge's courtesy, ""absolutely outrageous." "That's an affront to the legislators ... who established a three-day wait for a reason. I think that galls me as much or more than what Judge Hanson did because Judge Hanson obviously spent a lot of time writing his decision, not to say that I think what Judge Hanson did was right."

Pardon me while I rend my clothing in empathy with Chuck.

The lead editorial in the Register also was refreshingly sensible, particularly in light of the hyperventilating screaming we heard here in the amendment battle. It noted that Iowa's legislature had set itself up for this by having equality statutes, yet also passing a DOMA law without allowing for any alternative, such as civil unions.

The editorial's analysis of Judge Hanson's detailed and precise ruling is the best I've seen, including:

In defending the state marriage law, the defendant, Polk County - as the issuer of marriage licenses - relied on the standard arguments, but Hanson's opinion easily disposed of them: 1. Same-sex unions threaten the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. There was no evidence presented of that, he wrote. 2. The state's interest in heterosexual marriage is based on a desire to encourage procreation and raising children in households with mothers and fathers. There's an internal inconsistency with that, he found. After all, the state grants marriages to people who have no plans to raise children, and yet Iowa sanctions gay couples to adopt children and to become foster parents.

To show how the drive to outlaw same-sex marriage is on a collision course with the federal Constitution, Hanson cites language from the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision striking down sodomy laws. As Justice Antonin Scalia points out, preserving the " 'traditional institution of marriage' is just a kinder way of describing the state's moral disapproval of same-sex couples."

Let us pause and snicker at the irony of Hanson citing anti-SSM Justice Scalia in the finding.

I have no doubt many of the 40-plus states who rushed to pass DOMA laws and related amendments are watching with nervous anticipation. Iowa may well go with SSM or civil unions as the sensible, legal and constitutional course. The anti-marriage-equality buffoons know that day is coming in their own states. They had figured it might be decades, and maybe when the current legislators had retired, when they had to pay for their emotional pandering. Yet, in the very sensible and middle-American Iowa the big issues may be on the table and in their faces very soon.

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Tags: massmarrier, same-sex marriage, Massachusetts, civil rights, Des Moines Register, Iowa, Scott Rosenberg

Craig Plunges Off the Narrow Edge

Sen. Larry Craig, Republican-Idaho, (shown in his Minneapolis mug shots) is set to resign momentarily, perhaps tomorrow. How the undeservedly privileged has fall!

Let us consider Cicero's admonition that, "So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge." We have seen such attempts at cleverness far too often. Of course, this arrogance can come from Democrats as well, such as a certain President Clinton. Those praised and rewarded early and often for their ability to make words mean what they want eventually begin to believe that is true.

Craig by all accounts other than his own is a bisexual or closeted homosexual man with a wife and three adult kids. If it is as it seems, he has already lived decades of deceit, likely including self-delusion.

Reading for the past few days about his dissembling following his arrest in a sting of men who cruise restrooms for homosexual sex was sleazy. Hearing the tape of his questioning by the arresting officer leaves no doubt to me that he is a professional liar. It's easier to cut him a little slack by just reading the transcript.

I have written numerous times about politicians and others, locally and nationally, who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Craig is no more appalling than many others. Yet, how curious that this trait is decidedly more concentrated on the right wing of politics, both by citizens and officials.

I had the good fortune to have my two childhood mentors — my mother and her father — raise me to tell the truth and make my lumps when necessary. That brings to mind another pertinent quote. The Washingtonian quoted U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn in 1978 as saying, "Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time."

That's what it would have taken Craig in the men's room of the Minneapolis airport. Yet, that should have been his thoughts and actions when he was growing up, when he was in college, when he was single and married, and when he entered public life. True, it was harder then, but it would have prevented a life of lies and the disgrace he now owns.

I confess (if you pardon the expression) that I am pleased when a criminal comes to court saying, "I did it and am dreadfully sorry. I am here to take my punishment." Instead in violent and white-collar crimes alike, the cynical axiom How much justice can you afford? seems to hold sway. Even those caught red-handed plead innocent and try to lie and buy their way out of responsibility.

The lack of self-respect that comes with this compounded dishonesty is sad, even pathetic. In Craig's case, he can't even be called tragic. These lies were no single flaw in a noble being. This is the man who has fought vigorously for years to hold homosexuals down and deny them equality. His dishonesty ends up merely base and self-serving. He played endless games to advance and exalt himself and profit from doing so.

Alas, his duplicity and delusions have reduced him to a cartoon character. Think of Toy Story and Woody's description of Buzz Lightyear — sad, strange little man.

We can hope that he comes to and tries to live a better and an honest life. Even though he has robbed himself of honor in the process, he should not be so distraught at having his veil of deceit lifted from his sad, strange life and do himself in. Instead, he needs to atone.

We can conclude with one more from Cicero — Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?

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Tags: massmarrier, honesty, closeted, gay rights, Larry Craig, Idaho, Congress

The Pod People on the 5th CD

In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky

Ah, the great words of Mungo Jerry from 1970 have meaning for us today. We ask whether Niki Tsongas can in fact touch the sky in the race to replace U.S. 5th CD Rep. Marty Meehan.

Disclaimer: I regret if reading that lyrics snippet puts the tune as an ear worm in your brain. I'm living with it as a result already and empathize.

It is likely, but not certain, that she can touch the sky, that is, win the Democratic primary. Of course, the winner there is almost positive to skunk the Republican in the election and take the seat.

We kicked the pending election (Tuesday, 9/4) around for an hour at our Left Ahead! weekly podcast. Dick Howe was our guest. He and his co-bloggers offer political insights regularly on RichardHowe.com. He's a long-term Lowell and state Democratic Party guy from a political family. He knows this race.

Following our conversation, he got the latest poll results, which are on his site. They still show Niki Tsongas ahead (at 40%), but Eileen Donoghue leaping from 16% to 29%.

It became obviously early on that Tsongas was the emotional favorite in this short, summer race. The timing, similarity of candidates on key issues such as getting out of Iraq, and the voters' seeming obviousness to definable substance has made this hers, unless she blows it.

Real Disclaimer: The three Left Ahead! bloggers together and each of us individually long ago endorsed Jamie Eldridge as the sole progressive candidate in this race.

In the podcast, we got a bit out there with some of the implications. Whoever wins this seat may not get too comfortable. She or he would be filling in the shortened term for Meehan and up again in 2008. The turnout then would be much larger and less predictable. Plus, the winner would not have much time to show results and thus be vulnerable to someone pitching, "I'm the candidate you're been waiting for. Thank the Representative for keeping the chair warm for me."

Also, Massachusetts is likely to lose one or two seats due to reapportionment. This could be one of those. Already whispers include that putting a woman there might keep the seat safer, as Massachusetts so rarely sends a woman to Congress, as we can't elect a woman as governor.

That per-gender argument is crap, but so much of politicking is. This is just another instance.

To the current issue, I continue to be astonished at how little experience comes into play in the polls. Clearly on paper, Tsongas is the least qualified. She's never held public office and relies on a combination of service to non-profit boards, an unrelated academic job, and maybe getting knowledge by osmosis watching her late husband in D.C.

Her opponents include a Lowell mayor and councilor (Donoghue) and three state legislators (Eldridge, Barry Finegold, and Jim Miceli). You'd have to be raw populist with blinders to think, "Oh, let's avoid lawyers and anyone with comparable experience and expertise. Let's go with the nice widow."

Tsongas does seem very nice, but she clearly is not the smartest of the bunch any more than the most experienced. Donoghue exudes competence and confidence, in contrast.

I wish I was in the district and could vote on this one.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Congress, Eldridge, 5th CD, Meehan, Tsongas, podcast, Finegold, Donoghue, Dick Howe, Miceli

Iowa: Yes to Gay Marriage!

Liberty and common sense visited two states yesterday — Iowa and Maine. A district court in Iowa voided the state's DOMA law and ordered issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Also, Maine's high court ruled for a lesbian couple, and for two foster children they raised for six years, to permit adoption.

These two strongly pro-family rulings show the compassion, humanity and respect of law that has too often been lacking during the recent emotionally driven courts and legislatures recently. I can't call a trend yet, but with the sloth-like western states lumbering toward marriage equality, we may be getting a little filling in our fairness sandwich. (Block that metaphor!)

The Maine one was simple and sweet. The Cumberland County Probate Court tried to duck the same-sex-adoption issue, claiming they had no jurisdiction. In the high-court ruling, the justices unanimously said the normal adoption process applied and ordered it to continue. As an interesting sidelight, a friend of the court brief came from the state's Attorney General Steven Rowe, who argued that prohibiting this adoption would not serve the best interest of the children involved or the Maine adoption law's intent.

Iowa was not a clean. It has/had a DOMA law 595.2(1) simply stating "Only a marriage between a male and a female is valid." While that seems plain enough, it ran afoul in yesterday's decision in conflicting with and contradicting other laws. Specifically, a variety of equal-treatment laws require legal fairness.

We saw that as the basis here in Goodridge in Massachusetts, as well as in Canada, where it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms mandated fairness. In all these outcomes and others, courts and in some cases legislatures have decided that no one gets to cross out the homosexual or the woman or another other group and say except for these people.

As usual, the Leonard Link site had the fastest and best analysis. See Arthur Leonard's take here. I suggest that you, if your pardon, cruise the 63-page decision, which is here.

The decision is good reading for several reasons. Not only is it seemingly flawless in its well reasoned findings, it directly confronts underlying issues that spongier decisions in similar cases avoided. Also, the district court system in Iowa could face two levels of appeal and review.

The trial judge, Robert B. Hanson, did not do the usual timorous staying of his ruling, which was:

1. Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment is GRANTED and Defendant's opposing motion for summary judgment is DENIED.
2. Iowa Code §595.2(1) is hereby nullified, severed and stricken from Iowa Code Chapter 595. ..
3. All remaining provisions of Iowa Code Chapter 595 are to be interpreted in a gender-neutral manner so as not to exclude couples of the same sex from eligibility for a marriage license.
4. Defendant is hereby enjoined from refusing to issue marriage licenses to Plaintiffs or any other same-sex couples who a) are otherwise eligible for said licenses pursuant to Chapter 595 as amended and interpreted by this order, and b) who properly apply for such licenses.
5. Court costs are hereby taxed to Defendant.

That's a highly unusual form of judicial clarity. He voided the DOMA wording and ordered issuing marriage licenses. So there.

Of course, it may not be so there. The theater of courts permit but do not require appeals. The district court system (eight districts in the state) is the highest level of trial courts. Above this are two systems, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Either can consider the ruling and act on it.

My reading of the ruling suggests that Hanson left no room for claiming error. I'm not sure how effective whining by the anti-gay forces might be on an appeal. As Leonard notes, "Before plunging into the factual findings and analysis, Judge Hanson devoted several pages to explaining why he decided to disregard the opinion testimony of several individuals proposed by the defendants and the plaintiffs as 'expert witnesses.'"

For example, he did not allow generalization by Ph.D. types out of their fields. With a refreshing clarity, Hanson writes (page 7 of his decision), "The views espoused by these individuals appear to be largely personal and not based on observation supported by scientific methodology or based on empirical research in any sense. They do not meet the criteria for admission of expert testimony..." Also, the proposed witnesses who would make up conclusions about what they say might happen if homosexual couples could wed were disallowed, as were those who wanted to interject their personal religious beliefs.

This Hanson character must have gotten the courage and honor that so many other judges lack.

On paper, gay Iowans could get a license today and marry next week after the waiting paper. I certainly how some will do just that in the next few hours. Meanwhile, the Polk County recorder, who was defendant can and may well appeal. Such a request would go to the state Supreme Court, which could reject it or send it to the Court of Appeals for consideration.

Beyond this, the state requires a couple-year process to amend its constitution, similar to the Massachusetts process. Any proposed amendment must pass both houses of the legislature in two sessions (two years) before going to the voters. The state senate has already tied on this issue previously and is not likely to pass it, since becoming majority Democratic.

By the bye, the Iowa motto is Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.

Well, if this doesn't pop your corn, I don't know what would.

Afternoon Update: The AP reports that two men married in Des Moines this morning. The stereotype aspect is that it was on the front lawn of the UU minister who performed the ceremony. I had figured that folks would go through the cycle and wait the normal three business days, but Iowa State students Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan paid the $5 to a judge to accelerate the process. The Rev. Mark Stringer solemnized the marriage. He may not have completed his Toastmaster sessions; he wrapped up with, "This is a legal document and you are married." Meanwhile, Polk County Attorney John Sarcone asked Judge Hanson for a stay of his order pending an appeal. The stay hearing can't occur until after Labor Day.

In the AP/Charlie Neibergall image above, that's from left Fritz and McQuillan. Stringer wears the stole.

Update Update: Hanson didn't wait. That couple may be the only SSM for the time being. Hanson stayed the order at about 12:30 P.M. Eastern Time. No more same-sex licenses can be legally issued pending any appeal, according to a report in the Des Moines Register. Logic says the first couple should be married. Likewise, other licenses issued before Hanson's stay should have effect, but whether a resulting marriage for those would count short term would depend on an interpretation how the stay affected them.

Update Expansion: Per the Iowa City Press-Citizen, about 20 SS wedding licenses were issued before Hanson stayed his order. Polk County Recorder Julie Haggerty said she cannot issue more pending an appeal to the state Supreme Court. The Des Moines Register had a short with quotes from couples who waited, some from 5:30 a.m. for licenses. It included, "Those couples will likely receive a letter next week from Polk County saying their licenses are not valid."

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Tags: massmarrier, same-sex marriage, Massachusetts, civil rights, Maine, Iowa, adoption

Brief Blog Holiday

Off for a few days, here and at Harrumph! and Left Ahead!

Likely next up will be the bees Andy and I visited today in JP.

New, Improved (Cycling) Mayor

The world's wrongest cliché must be that people don't change. It is the shield for the cowardly and lazy.

Yet, given my tirades against Mayor Tom Menino about being anti-bicycle (like here), believe that the piece on his change of heart and head in today's Globe astonished me.

I've wanted this for so long, I don't have to see it to believe it. However, until you get today's paper or click over to the site, I include part of a George Rizer (Globe photog) pic. (I think his seat's a little low, but we can work on that.)

I'll see if I can get comments from Da Mare, as well as congratulating him and maybe apologizing for years of criticism. If Tommy now likes bikes, things will get better for us cyclists and commuters alike. Hyde Park Avenue is big enough for both of us.

Check the story to see that:

• He's a noob
• He's been out at 5 a.m. (he'll need front and back lights to be legal)
• He bought and unspecified brand of 3-speed automatic that looks like a commuting bike
• He's been doing 45 minutes at slow speeds
• He hasn't been on a bike in 40 years
• His chief of planning, Michael Kineavy, apparently inspired him

He article quoted his minions joking that he'll now expand his early morning and late night calls about things that have to be done immediately to potholes. Worse things could happen.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, cycling

BostonNOW, BostonNOT, BostonNO!

Street freebie papers seem like a good idea. Great Caesar's ghost! Boston has more than its share, bumping shoulders for distribution and ad revenue.

An old hand (likely my age) in the news biz, John Wilpers marched alertly into this battle last spring, to be the new editor of BostonNOW. We met at the New England News Forum in April at UMASS/Lowell. There he spoke of his innovations in planning to integrate blog content in the handout tabloid.

He's a wispy little fellow. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture and those I see all have copyright claims, except for the accompanying Steve Garfield one that NPR used, which is under Creative Commons. (I hope this is not a trend where citizen snappers and bloggers start claiming all rights willy-nilly. I don't.)

Yet, he is more substantial than he appears. The soft-spoken and slight Wilpers carries a shield of experience. He speaks with the confidence of the competent.

After he had a successful run starting the Boston Metro — in the black within 18 months, he says — he ran the Washington Examiner. That freebie had both subway handouts and driveway deliveries. You can read his take on how that went and what he sees as the niches for freebies in a PBS article here.

Interestingly enough, it appears from a short in MediaBistro when Wilpers resigned from the Examiner, that he is not entirely above spin. He said then, "It's time for me to reconnect with my family and for me to find a work situation that is more harmonious with my personal life. I am proud of the job that has been done over the past year in transforming the three Journal Newspapers into the Washington Examiner and proud of the role that I played in that success." That's not exactly Dick Nixon declaring victory in Vietnam, but Wilpers did not have the financial success in D.C. that he did initially in Boston with the Metro, and investors can be very impatient. Here too, main guy Russel Pergament is known for wanting fast ROI.

Up in Lowell, Wilpers didn't make politician-style promises, in his presentation or directly in our conversation. He didn't even use the buzzword hyperlocal.

The idea of bloggers as per-street, per-neighborhood town criers will likely get pretty tired pretty quickly. In execution, it often involves picking up mundane pebbles or straining at cleverness. On a big scale, aggregaters like outside.in do this and hope to make a buck, and in our part of the world examples of doing this right are UniversalHub. or H2Otown. Yet, done poorly, highly local minutia has the dreadful sameness of the original blog model of my cute kitten, my cute kid and my cute girlfriend.

Instead, Wilpers hoped to augment the MSM here, who badly falter and fall on local coverage. The press and broadcast continue to slash staff, filling ad time and space counterpoints with syndicated and wire stories, or worse, press releases. Yawn.

His model was to take good bloggers' material and augment the predictable with the fun, voyeuristic and, yes, hyperlocal, if it was worthy. He said that when BostonNOW made a profit, some of that would go to small payments to bloggers. Meanwhile, they'd be unpaid stringers. They'd get a plug for their sites and expect to up their traffic...maybe. That would be great for their egos and if they used ad links, like Google Adsense, they might make a few dollars while they waited for nickels and quarters.

Maybe I'm just not the entrepreneurial or self-promoting type, but I told him I'd wait to see what the rest of BostonNOW content was over a month or two before signing up as a blogger. I did not like the start or what has happened. I had some snarky comments recently in a piece on another freebie.

Some more expansive and nastier comments appeared in this week's Media Farm in the Dig.

After Wilpers was exiled to the nebulous role of consultant last week, the Dig cited their initial interaction with him, and stated, "We can't imagine that this (the firing and the oft-dreadful paper) is how Wilpers envisioned things would turn out. When he spoke to the Dig this past spring, Wilpers was brimming with optimism and with ideas on how to save journalism."

They recall him telling them that the MSM circulation drop "has a lot to do with newspapers' irrelevancy to people's lives...There's no content that's relevant to many readers. They still think with that gatekeeper model for what belongs and what doesn't. We don't agree. We're opening up the floodgates. Look out!"

While the Media Farm liked most of Wilper's vision, but suspects that "the model he helped dream up is itself broken." There judgment is that putting snippets from local blogs next to short wire pieces does not leverage blogs' advantages and "doesn't work journalistically" (whatever that means to Dig generalizers). However, I do agree with the conclusion that "when you've got no real way of cultivating and rewarding talented writers while suppressing dreck, dreck is what you get."

In theory, it doesn't have to be that way. Smart, literate, insightful bloggers might have thrown themselves at Wilpers. In another fantasy world, walk-on players might produce a national-championship college football team. Neither is likely to happen in our lifetimes.

It seems the BostonNOW people ramped up too quickly (do impatient greed and opportunism play here?). Media Farm cites publication before reader input was enabled on the net and with no copy editor to start.

I worked down at Ft. Point Channel while this very tiny drama played. So, I'd gather freebies daily, weekly and monthly — BostonNow, Metro, BayWindows, the Herald on afternoons when it was free, Epoch Times, the Dig, the Phoenix, Exhibit A, and a few other. I went to journalism school and truly have a newspaper jones.

None of the local freebies manifests the model of making a newspaper meaningful to people tired of the insipid local dailies. There are many dozens, maybe hundreds, of local stories that the Globe and Herald are too understaffed or too arrogant to report and run each week. In one area, I've even been seeing increasing crime and accident coverage in blogs that neither covers. Great Caesar's ghost, you get better police stories from the items the BPDnews than the dailies. But translating that into a form that works in an ad-supported handout is yet to be done here.

I suspect that someone somewhere else will develop this model. It may look more like the European dailies that have quickly growing circulations and are beautifully designed.

Then once a company in San Francisco or Chicago or wherever does it, we can copy it here. I look forward to that but don't expect any of our current players to do it on their own.

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Tags: massmarrier, Boston, BostonNOW, Wilpers, newspapers, bloggers, hyperlocal

Poking Vick with a Stick, Forever

How did our seesaw of society slide to schadenfreude? Newspaper editorials, op-eds and letters, as well as many blogs and speakers at public hearings, want Hell for the living.

Only the most recent example is Michael Vick. He pleaded guilty to offenses related to holding and funding dog fights, murdering dogs. The actual plea was for conspiring to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture. That reduced vicious, prolonged brutality to its federal violations. It does not include the possible Virginia animal cruelty charges that in theory could mean decades in jail (but likely won't).

Short of a few blood-sport loonies (and one confused NBA star), everyone acknowledges Vick is a criminal who deserves punishment. Yet what is astonishing includes:

• Despite his being sure to lose his quarterback job with $130 million income, plus hundreds of millions of endorsements, that does not begin to be enough for many of us.
• Despite his likely going to prison for 18 months to two years and losing his abilities that make him a top athlete, that does not begin to be enough for many of us.

A startling percentage of us seem to demand perpetual punishment for him, as we do for most convicted criminals. Surely if the vengeance crowd had compassion, they lost it. If they learned the concepts of paying the price, rehabilitation and second chances, they lost those.

Unpayable Debts

This allegedly is a nation of second chances, despite F. Scott Fitzgerald's melodramatic statement that "There are no second acts in American lives." Yet in the past few decades we have turned on those who need another shot the most. Our laws pretend to be reasonable and rational.

The theory is that if you are caught and convicted of (or plead guilty to) a serious crime, you pay in prison time or fines or both. Then you are supposed to live lawfully and contribute to society in taxes and otherwise.

In the large part, we are not very good at rehab. Felons don't come out of prison with new licit skills, rather with bitterness and knowledge of other criminal activities. Yet even with our warehousing mentality — and the highest percentage of our citizens in jail of any first-world country — some convicts emerge chastened and legit.

What we are seeing and doing now though shows widespread eagerness to provide non-stop and permanent punishment. Imagine if the public stocks from the Puritan times were perpetual. You are humiliated daily and forever for your sins against society. That would elevate punishment to Promethean levels, with that bird of prey eating your liver and returning to do the same with the regenerated one.

How is it that we decided that there is no way to pay a debt to society with prison time?

Worst Cases

An understandable wedge that may have contributed is child molesters and other sexual predators. We have sex-offender registries, laws and regulations on where they can live and travel, electronic anklets, and other tools to help assure the public that we are always watching them. Of course, this accepts that these people are crazy and incurable and presumes that such crazies will not act if they think the police are watching. We have many re-offender examples to disprove the latter.

The case of sex offenders illustrates the conundrum clearly, the issue that pertains to most convicted felons. The ideal is that being sent to prison is not for additional punishment, rather is the punishment, the loss of freedom, which allegedly is the great American driving force. The other part of that is while incarcerated, the prisoners get their heads on straight, receive therapeutic counseling and if they are there long enough, additional education to ensure that they emerge stable and productive. In those situations, the revitalized and wiser former criminal pays the social debt and returns to join us. We of course show compassion and welcome these citizens.

Back to sex offenders, we can't seem to re-pattern them. They go into prison with uncontrollable illegal lusts and come out with the same. We then look at various options:

1. Change the laws to permit keeping them in jail or psychiatric hospitalization forever, and do so.
2. Expect them to re-offend, monitor them until they slip up, and in effect do the first option. Repeat as necessary.
3. Dog them day and night, protest in front of their homes, demand that they be tossed from their jobs and living arrangements, and make them suffer until they end up back in prison or kill themselves violently or with drugs.
4. Devote many millions to researching behavioral or pharmaceutical cures, which is likely expensive and years away, and may even be impossible in some cases.

None of those is a great choice. Only the last one approaches the ideal of the justice system at all.

Starting Fresh

I am a baby boomer and I grew up with the ideals that our WWII parents preached. One of those ideals that recurred frequently in literature, TV and movies was paying your debt to society. In the story, there often were small-minded and unfair folk who wanted to harry the ex-con just trying to make his way. Usually a hero found support in the majority of citizens with the message of that debt has been paid.

There are other, older tales in which taking the allegedly reserved authority of a God for vengeance continues. I think of Les Misérables, even though Jean Valjean only sort of paid his debt. Five years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family and 14 years for escapes, he violated parole by not carrying his yellow ex-con ticket and telling everyone who he was. Even after a decade of exemplary life, Valjean remained the target of a relentless Inspector Javert. Author Victor Hugo makes his political statement and has his jest at justice with the ending. After Valjean saves Javert among others, the inspector kills himself when he realizes he can't stand to take Valjean in again. The vengeance monster must be fed!

How did we get to a point as nation that so many of us in the public and media can say that all former prisons deserve non-stop punishment? How did so many of us come to excuse contributing to others' suffering as a virtue and necessity?

Far too many of us seem to relish the Code of Hammurabi and the fearful vengeance of the Old Testament God. We also want to control the forces of retribution.

In a very real sense, that kind of blood lust and viciousness are far too similar to Michael Vick's crimes. A major difference is that those who cannot permit reentry into society demand continuous and continual punishment, a painful life and a long discomfort leading to a slow death.

As a good example, the leadership of the Atlanta NAACP is much more New Testament about the Vick situation. In an AP story, they agree that his deeds deserve punishment and that he has to pay his debt. However, Chapter President R.L. White said, "As a society, we should aid in his rehabilitation and welcome a new Michael Vick back into the community without a permanent loss of his career in football."

There's a balance that we can all strike. Whether it's stealing, hurting someone, or cruelly using dogs for fatal sport and profit, there are penalties for those caught and convicted. When we do not honor that, we presume to take the authority of the lawmakers, police, judges and even any God we might follow.

Who are we to do that?

A felon like Vick needs prison time. In this case, he is certain to lose more than nearly any of us could ever acquire, in reputation, money, status, relationships and almost anything else we can catalog. As with other convicted criminals, he needs a fair shake when he leaves prison.

I don't know that we have the will and compassion to pursue real rehabilitation for prisoners. We certainly should find better ways to reduce the number and percentage of Americans sent to jail. What we are doing doesn't work before, during or after prison.

Meanwhile, we have a justice system in place with penalties for offenses. The public stocks are literally gone from our towns' commons. Let us not figuratively restore them.

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Tags: massmarrier, criminals, debt to society, prison, dog fighting, punishment, Jean Valjean

Truthiness Pointer (Cirignano Edition)

Click over to QueerToday for John Hosty's update and recap on the maybe trial of Catholic Citizenship's former head, Larry Cirignano. I hadn't gotten to citing the scheduled October 15th trial (a nice Monday for a trip to Worcester, eh?). Bay Windows has more on that.

By the bye, I write maybe because such slippery characters often seem to plea bargain.

John was at the December rally last year when pro-equality demonstrator Sarah Loy hit the pavement, face down. Numerous witnesses told police Cirignano shoved her from behind. In typical winger fashion, he claims innocence. He and some VoteOnMarriage folk say she was provocatively blocking the podium, while witnesses and photos show she was not and that the podium was in an open space separated by maybe 30 feet from anyone. He also says he gently guided her and she fell on her own, when those many witnesses call it what the prosecutor has, assault and battery, and violation of her right to free speech.

Read John's account and think about a journey to our second largest city.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano

Itty-Boo, Parvenu

Here, we allegedly have neither royalty nor a deferential society. We're 'mer'cans, after all, not Brits.

Yet, it's hard to square our feigned egalitarianism with MacMansions, with slavish attention to tawdry, self-indulgent celebrities, and with envy and worship of business types and those with inherited wealth. We somehow have overlooked the hereditary titles, as well as the requirement of decorum, but otherwise, we out-English the English.

You can lift up the lid on this cesspool of irrationality by observing media coverage of our brand of royalty. You can also consider the disparate takes on a little book by Newsweek writer Dana Thomas, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster.

I am first to confess that I love alliteration more than most. That surely stems from and was ingrained by my elementary-school poetry writing. In this book's case, it illustrates the artificial cleverness that this fashion/style/culture writer employs.

Light Muckraking

That is the nature of her business as well, but be warned. Were she on the serious side of reportage, this could be yellow journalism and exposé. She draws on her visits to the workrooms, factories, offices and stores of high-end nonnecessities. She emerges with a few bits of dirt in her teeth, such as absurdly overpriced (and to my eye, very ugly) handbags being almost entirely made in poor countries before coming to Italy or France to get a buckle (and the MADE IN... tag) added. Also, foreign factory managers and workers save scraps to feed into the illegal knock-off market.

Jeeves, quickly, my smelling salts!

You can get your own sense of her cutesy, lightweight insider's writing by paying $28 or heading or to Gawker for some excerpts — handbag obsessions, underground purses, and tiny lessons from the Parada HQ. Yet, more telling is how this trivial book is garnering disparate reviews.

Get It/Don't Get It

Over at the blue-collar New York Daily News, Sherryl Connelly plays up the asininity of wasting money to look like so many others aspiring to look like some dubious ideal of privileged. As she writes:

"Perhaps because as the luxury goods industry has swelled to a $157 billion business, it's obvious in a world gone mad for designer goods that we're buying in. What are we coming away with, then, for our dollars?

According to Thomas, we're duped into purchasing 'the appearance of exclusivity,' which she considers an inferior product. Maybe it is, and in that case it's fair to ask: Hey sucker, where didja get that bag?"

Over at glam.com, the take is that the book "explores the darker side of the new luxury industry... and reveals that instead of producing the finest products that money can buy, the luxury marketplace today focuses on the single goal that the major fashion labels don't want you to know about: maximizing profits." Likewise, a review by John Stoehr in the Savannah Morning News (disclaimer, I used to work there and might not cite it otherwise) judges, "While it's not completely clear where Thomas' sympathies lie, one can tell she's genuinely troubled by the facts she has unearthed. The splendor of luxury is clearly tainted by knowing so much about it."

However, the best take is totally different. A review in the business section (!) of the Sunday New York Times by Harry Hurt III (only III?) rues the day when the really upper class could look down their long faces at hoi polloi who would drape themselves in their castoffs.

He calls it "sometimes heat-wrenching" when Thomas notes that luxury biz no longer caters to what I would call our royalty. He quotes her passage that making high-end goods available to plebes is a social tragedy. "It has become part of our social fabric. To achieve this, it has sacrificed its integrity, undermined its products, tarnished its history and hoodwinked its consumers. In order to make luxury 'accessible,' tycoons have stripped away all that has made it special."

So put in my terms, most of those who sell luxury items to make the self-defined aristocrats feel ever more special and distinct have fallen into a luxury industry. Alas, when the wealthy would easily differentiate themselves from hoi polli by what they would acquire for have done for them may be much harder. As Hurt notes, the richest will always have ways beyond means of even the wealthy to have custom goods and services. Yet, now even people who work for a living can brazenly stroll with oversized evidence of the unnecessary and overpriced.

Hurt loves Thomas' image that "Luxury wasn’t simply a product. It denoted a history of tradition, superior quality, and often a pampered buying experience. Luxury was a natural and expected element of upper-class life, like belonging to the right clubs or having the right surname. And it was produced in small quantities — often made to order — for an extremely limited and truly elite clientèle."

Horror at the Common

That may look to us as though she is writing about people who belong an a zoo or museum. Yet she and Hurt seem like minded on this.

He even pulls images of terrible consequences from this democratization of exclusivity. He cites "dire effects across the globe, and on almost every socio-economic level." Among these are sweatshops. He seems totally unaware that those have existed for centuries, are far more common for ordinary consumer goods, would not go away if all the luxury labels poof disappeared, and luxury companies don't pay their overworked laborers any more than sneaker companies do.

Our everybody-panic reviewer concludes that "merchandising luxury has taken a heavy toll on both cultural and language...one of the most dire effects has been to turn the term itself into a kind of oxymoron. After all, what's the real luxury in being a 'have' if hordes of logo-loving former have-nots can own the same product?"

Now, luxury-brand companies are rapacious capitalists seeking excess profits from rapacious consumers. They deserve each other.

On the other hand, Thomas and Hurt can split a vintage Veuve Cliquot as befits their slightly elevated status, while lamenting that the very unAmerican pseudo-royalty has to work harder to find ways to feel special. Surely, that class can hire someone to find those ways for them.

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Tags: massmarrier, luxury, Deluxe, Dana Thomas, Harry Hurt

Bike Racks and JP Cave Garages

Two non-political (except for one Menino dig) and off-topic posts are over at Harrumph! There are the under-house and hillside garages of JP's Woodbourne and the search for bike racks amidst the quasi-luxury of Chestnut Hill.

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Tags: massmarrier, harrumpher, Boston, Jamaica Plain, Woodbourne, Chestnut Hill, bike racks, garages

The Not Quite Sox and Plying the Canals

Those familiar with my adulation of the Lowell Folk Festival and silence between July and July may be shocked to know that Lowell is open to visitors all year. There's that Lupien lady and the Howe gentleman who beat quiet drums for our fourth largest city.

Last weekend, my two youngest sons and I took in a pair of Lowell's goodies. Check out the affordable fun at the Spinners (Sox farm team) game and go to water level with industrial and union history on a canal tour.

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Tags: massmarrier, harrumpher, Boston, Lowell, canals, James Francis, Sarah Bagley, NPS, floods, Industrial Revolution