Ferguson and Smart Justice

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policewomen.police.people in uniform.team workSometimes I read or hear things from disparate places that are stated in separate contexts that bring home a point about things I am thinking about. That happened this week in regard to the riots in Ferguson and an article on a common denominator among mass murderers.

Everyone by now has heard the story of Ferguson. A cop shot down a monstrous boy/very young man in the middle of the street. Accounts widely diverge from self-defense to cold blooded murder, and the rioting and looting and militaristic police response has been a national saga ever since.

I also read, an op ed piece on the common thread among mass murders in recent history that was tucked away in the Mad World online written by a conservative, gun right pundit. It can be read here (Nearly Every Mass Shooting has this One Thing in Common, and It Isn’t Weapons).

Those are a couple of pretty unrelated things, right? Maybe not if you are a conservative, gun-right-preaching zealot, or even a left-leaning libertarian gun right believer in protecting one’s self against the excessive force of a rogue government law enforcement agency. But, that is not the connection that these two things had for me.

Mental illness is the thing. I am no expert on mental illness, though I once worked in a state run institution for developmentally disabled adults. While there, I developed distrust for drug prescribing psychiatrists and state run bureaucracies. Those patients were over-medicated, it seemed to me, more to make their caregiver’s’ lives easier rather than for any benefit to the patients; but I admit my observations were not educated ones.

The point of the article is that nearly all of the recent mass shootings were perpetrated by people who had been prescribed psychotropic drugs – SSRI drugs (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors). These are drugs with common names such as Zoloft, Luvox, Prozac, Ritalin (I am not sure that is one), Paxil, etc.) You can see the list of perpetrators and their drugs at Ammoland Gun News (yes, Ammoland Gun News, believe it or not)

Something did not sit right for me about the article so I asked a friend about it. My friend, who works in the psychiatric field with her husband, commented that the shooters likely became manic or had a “mixed episode” of mania and depression after taking the SSRI or the stimulants because, in fact, their correct primary diagnoses were actually bipolar disorder, not major depressive disorder or anxiety disorder or ADHD. SSRIs are potentially dangerous if prescribed for bipolar disorder.

She also told me, on average, it takes a psychiatrist in the U.S. 10 years to make a correct diagnosis for bipolar disorder, maybe even longer if it is the milder version, bipolar II. That is really pathetic. (Her words) The other piece of information that is not included here that should be is that many people with mental illness go on aggressive sprees when they are just getting sick with the onset of the disorder and have not been prescribed meds yet.

Well, that got me thinking. I am no expert, but I know people who are; and they tell me that treatment of mental illness in our country is severely lacking. Our government funds many things, but the treatment of mental illness is severely underfunded. Health insurance also does not cover mental illness to the degree of other illnesses.

Then I heard an interview on NPR, which is the thing that began to bring these seemingly disparate subjects together for me. I strongly encourage you to listen to this piece titled, Mental Health Cops Help Reweave Social Safety Net in San Antonio.

According to this piece, “jails hold 10 times as many people with serious mental illness as state hospitals do”, referencing “a recent report from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit that lobbies for better treatment options for people with mental illness.” To deal with the problem of mental illness and overcrowded jails, “San Antonio and Bexar County have transformed their mental health system into a program considered a model for the rest of the nation. Today, the jails aren’t full, and the city and county have saved $50 million over the past five years.” The San Antonio effort is “called ‘smart justice’ — basically, diverting people with serious mental illness out of jail and into treatment instead.”

$50,000 saved! You must listen to the officer who was trained to deal with mental illness encounter a young man acting weird. The officer admits the man would have been taken to jail years ago, under the old system. In this segment, the officer takes a much different approach, and the difference is dynamic.

Overarching these various things is the idea that “kindness matters” – to borrow a term used recently in an opinion piece in a local newspaper written by…. a police officer. Novel idea!

Not that no police officers are kind, but things are definitely different from when I grew up. A final interview I heard with a 30 year law enforcement veteran revealed something that I did not know. Apparently, police training across the country over the last 30 or more years has taken a more militaristic turn from the “serve and protect” model of local police who walked a beat. This veteran expressed concern over this development, which has been long in the making. Police officers are trained differently, and that training is having an effect.

There is a different way of going about law enforcement that emphasizes “smart justice”. Mental illness is not the cause of all our society’s problems, but it must be addressed. People with mental illness need treatment. Their behavior is more of a manifestation of that mental illness than criminal intent.

Not every punk kid encountered on the street is going to be a career criminal. I was one of those punks. I can still remember the grace I was shown as a kid by local law enforcement who were more father than soldier to me, and I will be forever grateful. I still do not know what I was thinking through those dark years of my life, but I can only liken it to temporary insanity (exaggerating slightly of course).

In fact, if I were “mistreated” in any way, it would have reinforced my sense of “the man” I thought I was fighting back in the day, and I might be still fighting the man today. Now, I am proud to be a contributing part of the community that treated me well when I did not know any better.

I will end with a little pseudo-science and philosophy. Newton observed “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” I think that may be true of people and relationships. Force draws one reaction; kindness draws another reaction. We need to be smart about how we deal with societal problems.

The Hobby Lobby Case Summarized

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The storm of comments have died down, but they have not gone away. What will the ramifications of this opinion be? Will it be like the case of the Amish family in Wisconsin (Yoder) who insisted their children stay home from school after 8th grade? The Yoder case has been distinguished much more often than followed? In laymen’s parlance, that means it has been largely ignored as precedent. Or will it be like Roe v. Wade that marks an historic and seismic shift in jurisprudence and social construct? Time will tell, but it has certainly caused quite a stir in the meantime.

kevingdrendel's avatarNavigating by Faith

j0321176There have been many reactions to the recent Supreme Court decision in the “Hobby Lobby case”; and many reactions are emotional responses that are not guided by the actual facts. In particular, people are objecting to large corporations wholly refusing contraception to their employees. The facts are less dramatic, but they make all the difference. let’s consider them.

To begin with, the “Hobby Lobby case” is not just one case, but three. The three cases involve Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood Specialties and Mardel Christian and Educational Supply. Conestoga is a maker of wood cabinet, doors, and miscellaneous wood products located in Pennsylvania. Mardel is a supplier of Christian books, Bibles, education materials and miscellaneous merchandise. Of course, everyone knows what Hobby Lobby is. Hobby Lobby is the largest corporation of the three.

There is something else all three corporations have in common. They are all family-owned, closely-help corporations. That means the stock…

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Taxation, Representation and Morality

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paul revere statue, north end, bostonDSC_0096DSC_0100

My wife’s recent visit to Bunker Hill in Boston on a trip to New England to see her family got me thinking about the “Boston Tea party” and the dumping of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest British taxation. “No taxation without representation” was the rallying cry at that time.

That slogan seems odd today. Taxes are a part of our lives and seemingly always have been. But it wasn’t always like that.

Federal taxation was very limited through the first 137 years after the Revolution. From 1791 to 1802, only certain goods were taxed. Sales taxes were used to fund the War of 1812 but were eliminated in 1817 when the funding was no longer necessary. The first federal income tax was imposed in 1862  to fund the Civil War and was eliminated in 1872 when it was no longer needed.

Until the twentieth century, federal taxes generally, including income taxes, were only used for specific purposes, primarily for protection of the country. That changed in 1913 with the 16th Amendment to the US . That year a permanent income tax was established, and we have not looked back. (Click here for more on the history of taxes.)

The level of taxation to which we have become accustomed is a modern construct, and federal government self-restraint is a now thing of the past.

We have traveled far from the days of the Revolution. Gone is the moral outrage over the taxation, among other things, that led to the Revolutionary War. Now we see a different morality at work that is evident in President Obama’s recent statement, “I don’t care if it’s legal, it’s wrong.” He was speaking of the increased tendency for corporations to move their headquarters out of the US to avoid the payment of higher taxes in the US, but that is an outgrowth of a new moral construct that has at work today.

Bear in mind, the President recognizes that the companies are doing nothing illegal. They are taking advantage of provisions written into the tax code. The present prevailing morality, however, of which the President is the chief spokesman, condemns the avoidance of taxation. Where our leaders once sought to be free of taxation and government rule in favor of private enterprise; now taxation and government control is the moral hue and cry.

Consider this however. There are mechanisms that all people and businesses use to avoid paying higher taxes. Those mechanisms are all written into the Internal Revenue Code. For instance, every person can assert an individual exemption, and taxpayers who are married with children may assert individual exemptions for each spouse and child. Is the use of those exemptions a moral issue?

People commonly refer to these mechanisms that are written into the tax code as “loopholes”. They are not loopholes, really, but provisions that are part of the tax code that are available to people and businesses to reduce the amount of tax they pay. The word, “loophole”, itself, suggests a moral position.

Many of the “loopholes” were designed to encourage certain behavior. For instance, we are allowed to deduct mortgage interest, which is an encouragement for people to buy houses. Deductions for the purchase of energy efficient appliances and home improvements are intended to encourage people to buy them. Charitable donations are meant to encourage charitable giving.

Some might might consider the exercise of individual taxpayers’ rights to minimize their taxes an exercise of individual representation that was won when the founding fathers shook of oppressive British control. But there is a counter revolution that is growing in support. The current Commander in Chief is the most prominent spokesman, but there is also a ground swell of grass roots support.

A large segment of modern US society seems to consider it immoral to avoid taxes, albeit legally. It is a selective morality to be sure. No one seems to argue that individuals should not use the exemptions available to them…. unless they are too successful at using those exemptions. But, where do we draw the line? When is it morally alright to avoid taxes, and when is it morally wrong? Is there a moral obligation to pay more taxes than one should?

Frankly, it is not a moral issue at all, and it never has been. It is control issue. It is an ideological issue. But, it is not a moral issue.

Some tax avoidance devices are are not as straight forward. Some mechanisms may not have been what Congress intended when it passed the current code and the amendments to it, but the mechanisms people use are based on the way the Internal Revenue Code is written. Certainly, the tax code is unnecessarily complicated, and that complexity has spawned a large industry based on maximizing the use of the tax code provisions to minimize taxes.

Instead of condemning behavior that is legal as immoral, albeit legal, should we not focus on changing the tax code instead condemning legal behavior?

That is how it should work, but we have a disturbing trend occurring. Congress is becoming more polarized and less effective and less capable of reaching consensus or compromise to get things done. Most people (even Congressmen) agree that tax reform (and immigration reform and other things) must be addressed, but they cannot work together to get anything done. Members of Congress seem more concerned about getting reelected and pandering to constituents than taking on these issues that must be addressed.

At the same time, we see our current President rushing into the void and wielding an ax and a pen to cut out and to add to the law as he, unilaterally, determines. The rule of law is being jeopardized in the process and power is concentrating in the executive office as it never has before in our history. I would add that it is not the raw number of executive orders and other executive actions, but the character and impact of them that threatens the checks and balances that have protected us from our government all these years.

Government is necessary in a civilized society, but government restraint is necessary in a free society. The larger our government gets, the more it has the ability to become oppressive. The further away from local control government is, the more out of touch it becomes. The larger government gets, the more bureaucratic and inefficient it becomes. These are principles that informed the founders of our country, but we seem to want to abandon them now.

Further, in spite of federal taxation that has been the rule for the last 100+ years, the budget deficit swells out of control. That is a moral issue, in my opinion, as we add every day to the burden our children and grandchildren will have to carry.

We are tending in a direction that I think our founding fathers would find frightening and disheartening. Taxation in and of itself is not a bad thing, but the rallying cry today might be, “No taxation without self-restraint!”

Congress does not effectively represent the people at this time in our history. The areas that most people agree need to be addressed are not being addressed because of partisanship, factions, incivility and unwillingness to compromise. Rhetoric on both sides is becoming increasingly polarized. Even our media is now partisan. At the same time, we see an increasing tendency toward a moralism that is above the law. That moralism is becoming the justification to make unilateral decisions that are not representative of the people, but representative of an ideology.

The combination of Congressional inaction, unilateral executive actions and selective enforcement of existing law is triggering state and individual reaction. There is change in the wind. The forces are lining up on either side and digging in. The future is at stake and the outcome is uncertain.

Change is inevitable, but will it be change that is representative of the people? Or will it be change that is imposed by a moral elite from the bully pulpit with the force of a powerful, central government that is loosing touch with the people?

He Was a Good Judge

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Ketih Brown on the Bench - Gloria Casas (Sun-Times Media)Kane’s First African American Judge Leaves Legacy, so the headline reads. Indeed, he has, and a very good one; but the headline strikes a discord in me. Let me explain.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that we focus too much on race sometimes. Is that the most defining characteristic, the primary lasting legacy, that Judge Keith Brown leaves us? No, I think not. He is/was a good judge, one of the best we have had. He leaves a legacy of strong character, integrity and a very good judge.

Yes, he was the first African American judge in Kane County Illinois, a County with a storied history and home to the oldest, continuous bar association in the State that goes back to the circuit riding days of Abraham Lincoln, back to a very different time in which African Americans were enslaved and oppressed. That is a legacy too, but one which is more like a cloud, and hopefully we emerging out from under that cloud into the sunlight.

I hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “I had a dream,” echo in my head as I write this. We have risen “from the dark and desolate valley of segregation” and are on the “sunlit path to racial justice. “The “bright days of justice” have emerged, but there is the ever present temptation “to satisfy our thirst for justice by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

Keith Brown did not drink from that cup. He “walked on the high plain of dignity and discipline” as Doctor King eloquently instructed. Continue reading →

10 Life Lessons I Learned On A Wrestling Mat

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In case you, the reader, have not noticed, wrestling is a theme in my life and my thoughts. Wrestling was the fertile soil for some of the greatest personal growth I experienced. I pass on other blog post of similar ilk because it never gets old for me.

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Growing up involved in the sport of wrestling is a very interesting experience. You are exposed to a manner of thinking that few others will understand, even fewer will agree with, and none outside the fraternity of wrestlers will recognize the power of. This method of thinking is near and dear to me, as it shaped my entire life to this point. The reason why the “wrestler mentality” is so incredibly powerful is because it makes zero concessions in terms of acceptance of mediocrity or failure. The only option is success, and the only way to get there is to be unyielding in your pursuit of your goals. These are the 10 major life lessons that I learned through wrestling that have impacted me as a husband, father, teacher, student, and overall human being. While some of these lessons are straight forward, there are some that are Miyagi-esque in terms…

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College Sports is Not a Career

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08 FILA Univ. 70kg National ChampOk, I stole the title (See College Softball is not a Career), but it is too true and too relevant not to “re-appropriate”. It could be wrestling, volleyball, hockey, gymnastics, swimming or any of the sports that become the central focus of the lives of children and their parents.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved every minute of it! My kids grew up in the IKWF (Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation), the Illinois state arm of USA Wrestling. They started wrestling when they were 6 and 8. They have wrestled in college (and are still wrestling), and we have learned a lot along the way.

I cannot say that I had the best perspective when it all started, or that I did not have a long way to go in the middle of it all. My confession is that I, too, was caught up in the thrill of the competition and had trouble seeing over the horizon. In the midst of it, the competition seems to be an end in itself, and parents can be as guilty of seeing it that way as the kids. In truth, maybe more so; and we should know better.

The article from which I borrowed my thoughts lays the cold, hard truth on the table:

“Every softball player’s career ends at some point. Usually too soon. If you did not parlay your softball skills into an educational advantage, it was a pretty bad investment.”

Substitute wrestling for softball, or volleyball, or whatever. It is the same. Sports is not a career for all but the very, very rare exceptions… and those exceptions are primarily coaches who received a college degree that allows them to coach in middle school, high school or college. (Professional wrestlers don’t count. Don’t get me started!)

My kids grew up in the IKWF when the “elite” wrestling clubs were just starting. Before that, communities had clubs that practiced at the local high school or park district facility. They were community orientated. With advent of the “elite” clubs, the community clubs were no longer good enough. Parents would travel past two towns, three towns, two counties, across the state and even to other states to these elite clubs. It happens in many youth sports.

I knew people who traveled an hour and half to two hours each way three or more times a week so their son could wrestle with an elite club. They would take their 8-year olds to Tulsa and Reno and other “elite” tournaments all over the country on a regular basis to get them the best competition. I have been in wrestling rooms in May, long after the wrestling season is over, with young kids wrestling hard, grueling practices every day of the week.

Though we never jumped on the elite club train, my kids have been there too in May, June, and July. It was their choice. They wanted to get better. They loved the competition. I loved it too!

One parent told me, “All this money we are spending now is going to pay for their college.” It did not work out that way for their oldest son. He washed out of the DI school in less than a year. Their second son, who was good enough to get a “full ride” to many places, chose the top wrestling school at the time for just a partial scholarship.

It is almost delusionary to plan on a full scholarship in wrestling. DI colleges only 9.9 full scholarships to hand out. There are 10 spots on the team, and wrestlers get hurt. They need backups to their backups. There might be thirty to forty or more wrestlers in every DI room. Almost no one gets a full scholarship. Other sports are similar in the percentages of athletes who can pay for their college through sports.

One smart parent commented to me that they could put away all the money that is spent on elite clubs, travel and gear and be able to pay for college themselves when the time comes.

Wrestling has helped my sons open doors and pay for some of college, but wrestling has not given them a degree (or a career). I have to admit that they could have spent more time focusing on school, and that would have given them more skills to earn their degrees. One of my sons has wrestled at the World/Senior/Olympic level, but he is till pursuing his degree at the age of 24. At that level, wrestling is a job, though there is no career in wrestling. The degree and the career is up to him, and, at this point, it will be in spite of wrestling.

Wrestling is valuable experience, building character and self-esteem. It brings fathers (and mothers) and sons (and daughters) together in unique, relationship building ways. It can help pay for college. But, it is not a career. It needs to be kept in perspective. It is a stepping stone, a path, a vehicle by which a child can journey to a secure adulthood with some advantage… if it is kept in the right perspective.

My brother tells me that one local club keeps that perspective with a statement on the wall that says, “Don’t let wrestling use you; use wrestling” (or something like that). Wrestling is a great journey, but it is not a destination – at least for the 99.99%. Take what you can from it, but do not let it be the end all.

My younger son went through a difficult time his freshman year in college. He was burned out. He felt that all he saw was the inside of a wrestling room. It nearly derailed him. When he took a step back and found a different perspective, his energy for wrestling, and for something beyond wrestling, was revitalized. Jordan Burroughs, after he won an Olympic gold medal, went through a time of letdown. He had reached the pinnacle, and the pinnacle was not fulfilling in and of itself. He was revitalized when he latched on to a higher purpose.

Nothing is quite so intoxicating for a parent than a child who has some talent. Do your child a favor, though, keep it all in perspective. There is more to life than wrestling. There is more to college than wrestling. Wrestling will end. There is a higher perspective. What will be left when it ends is up to you.

Postscript from the Proactive Coaching Facebook page:

“If someone is promoting that your athlete younger than 14 start specializing and playing one sport year round, please understand that more money doesn’t guarantee success – you can’t buy your kids an athletic future. Often the people who want kids to specialize at a young age are the adults who profit from it.”