The Bosque Boys

Is the system racist?

From a recent Newsweek exposé:

A Town In Turmoil

"As the new school year approaches, Jena, La., is struggling to move beyond the racial strife that ripped it apart and left the futures of six students in disarray."

Full article here.

The crux of the story: Six black teenagers are charged with beating a white teenager. Authorities have already tried and convicted one of the Jena Six for "aggravated second-degree battery."

The back story: According to Newsweek's reporting, a black student violated the "school's unspoken racial codes" and occupied an "area reserved for white kids."

More Newsweek :

"Some white students didn't look kindly on the encroachment: the next day, three nooses hung from the oak's branches.

"That provocation, which conjured up the ugly history of lynch mobs and the Jim Crow South, unleashed a cycle of interracial strife that has roiled the tiny town of Jena. In the ensuing months, black and white students clashed violently, the school's academic wing was destroyed by arson and six black kids were charged with attempted murder for beating a white peer."

On the web photo gallery, a Newsweek caption reads:

"Justin Barker, 18, a friend of the students who hung the nooses, is the alleged victim of a beating by six black students at Jena High School."

Alleged? Wasn't there a conviction? Are we waiting on the appeal before we presume that the beating victim was actually beaten. Is Newsweek intimating that this might be a hoax?

Provocation? Do inflammatory symbols really excuse violent retribution--even if the target was a friend of the racist noose-hangers?

Another caption:

"Jena was 'entirely bypassed by the civil-rights movement,' says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. African-Americans continue to be concentrated in an area called 'the country,' a mix of tidy brick homes and rusted trailers. Whites tend to live in 'Snob Hill,' a middle-class neighborhood with tall pines and manicured lawns."

Wow! The de facto segregation rings true, but my experience with small towns in the South is that most whites are not wealthy and living in genteel surroundings. My hunch is that this glaring and likely erroneous generality (undisputed anywhere in the story) is emblematic of similarly slanted reporting and facile conclusions.

What should we make of all this? What is behind all this turmoil in Louisiana?

"The D.A. is a racist. There's just no other way to explain it," charged one of the parents of the accused. Newsweek does not quibble with that assessment.

On the other side of the country in Palmdale, California:

A black teenager, who attacked and killed another young man (who was white) in 2005, won a reduced conviction (from second-degree murder to voluntary manslaughter). As a result of the reduced conviction, an appellate court ordered the black youth resentenced. Last week, a judge sentenced the perpetrator to four to 11 years (reduced from a seven-year minimum) in a California Youth Authority facility.

The background: The black teenager, 13 at the time, attacked and killed Jeremy Rourke, a 15-year-old white youth after losing a PONY League baseball game.

The reaction to the reduced sentence (which, after considering time already served, will make the convicted teen-killer eligible for release in two years)?

From the LA Daily News:

"[T]he parents of defendant Greg Harris Jr. decried the punishment and accused the judge of racism.

"'Something has to be done about this judge. This is ridiculous,' Greg Harris Sr. said after the hearing. 'Eleven years - c'mon. Adults don't even get that. Personally, we feel he's racist.'"

Full story here.

My Conclusion?

I feel for parents who are quick to defend their children and slow to face the enormity of their trespasses. Certainly we still face important questions regarding race and justice in America--and we should take those matters very seriously.

Having said that, racial insults are NEVER justification for physical assault.

Even more importantly, we must resist the temptation to see racism as a default motivation even when there are more compelling reasons to explain the workings of the justice system.

That is, a boy was killed; it was due to the purposeful actions of another boy. This is a tragedy, but, inarguably, the perpetrator deserves punishment. That is not essentially a story about race.

Note: I intend this essay as part one of a longer conversation regarding race and responsibility. My next installment will feature more hopeful signs (the good news) rather than the mournful stories related above.

The Bourne movie franchise is an astounding money-maker. Well-made and exciting, these movies are entertaining. But, are they good for us?

In these movies the enemy is our own CIA: a plot from far, far too many movies. Hollywood keeps casting the CIA as villains; and I assume that American public perception is thereby influenced.

The CIA helped us win the Cold War. And now, in this age of Islamic Terrorism, we need a smart and efficient CIA in the worst way. We need the CIA to recruit the best and brightest, to be well-funded, so that it can successfully take its place in our first line of defence. Can the CIA recruit successfully, receive adequate funding, and function with purpose and good moral, if the Agency is demonized continually by Hollywood? If the American public is taught not to respect those who labor on our behalf, indeed to assume that they are the enemy?

Don't bother leaving a comment about some past excesses. I am talking now. I would rather my family not be blown up tomorrow by some fanatic shouting the praises of Allah.

I don't plan to buy a movie ticket to see the CIA trashed, again.

The next morning after our day in the Smokies, we took a sidetrip to Dillsboro, North Carolina, home of the Dogwood Crafters cooperative (website). In a small house in a small mountain town, crafts from many, many high country crafters are for sale: corn shuck dolls, tatted lace, quilts, pottery, baskets, and more. We left with a wood-split basket and a ceramic bowl. Since the items are sold through a cooperative, not a commercial gallery, almost all the purchase price goes to the artisan.

Farmers get less than a dime for each loaf of bread you buy. Factory workers, especially in countries without unions, get a pittance from each item you purchase. For this, and other reasons, I like to buy directly from artisans/coops and farmers/farmers' coops. It seems to me that the producers should enjoy more of the fruits of their labor.

So check out your local farmers' market, roadside vegetable stand, artisan. Check into buying from coops. Viva localism.

From MSNBC: full story here
Today, however, Chinese companies have a sizable cost advantage over their rivals in the developed world because many of the environmental costs of doing business in the United States, Europe and Japan are still externalities in China. Polluting the air, water and ground at no cost to the company's bottom line makes it easy to undercut the prices charged by companies that don't have a right to pollute for free.

Buy MADE IN CHINA and help support the destruction of the earth.

The doctor comes into your hospital room. You assume he is there to heal you, or at least to help ease your suffering if healing seems impossible. You view the doctor as an agent of life. But, if euthanasia becomes legal and more common, then when the doctor walks through the door you will not be sure that she is an agent of life. She might be the agent of death. Without your consent? Sure. Your money is running out; the insurance company does not want to continue payments; your children are distressed at your suffering and decide they can't take it anymore . . . The doctor agrees, and assures the family that the end will be painless; and, oh, don't tell the patient what is in the syringe, that would only cause mental anxiety and distress. The doctor enters: is he an agent of life or death? You don't know.

Some related thoughts from Cardinal George Pell.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church stepped to the edge of the cliff recently. From the NYT:

The country’s largest Lutheran denomination officially bars openly gay people from the ministry. But in a move that advocates for gay men and lesbians are hailing as a step toward changing that policy, the denomination is urging its bishops to refrain from disciplining gay members of the clergy who are in committed same-sex relationships.

Full story.
The vote is intended to be an interim measure until a report is made to the church in 2009.

One of the ways denominations have slid down the slope is to keep "studying" an issue until an advocacy group gets what it wants. Votes may be taken, traditional positions enunciated, but the effect blunted by a vote to undertake "further study" or "dialogue." Then, when a convention/synod/assembly finally votes to make a change away from tradition, suddenly there is no need for further study.

God help the Lutherans.

Now baby bibs having lead. Story here. Another week, another dangerous Chinese import. Previous post here.

Odd, in a way. When I was young, "Made in Japan" meant "junk." But, over the last three or so decades the Japanese have turned out such quality that "Made in Japan" means well-made. Korea and Taiwan have had similar quality improvements. Why is China making no progress in quality, perhaps even regressing? The Chinese people are hard working still. Is it corrupt management?

It's not just an expansion problem During American industrial expansion in the late-nineteenth century, we sold the cheapest steel in the world that also was the highest quality in the world. Thank you Andrew Carnegie.

(I hope the Chinese military is having similar quality-control problems.)

Leaving Smoky Mountain National Park on the North Carolina side, we traveled US 19 from Cherokee to Bryson City where we stayed the night. Along the way we met few cars, and the motels were older and sometimes showing decay. Bryson City was almost empty of tourists, though obviously set up to cater to people coming and going from the Park. Leaving the next morning we discovered the reason: another highway, four-lanes, had bypassed the town by a couple of miles, US 74.

The economic paths of America have always been changing. Centers become margins and back again. In early Missouri, my home state, the best roads in the state 180 years ago led to the rivers. Commerce flowed along them. Until the railroads. Then the centers changed as new economic pathways flowed with goods and people. Interstates and highway upgrades do the same thing today. Build a nice motel in 1947 and it may not have much traffic by it in 2007. Should the state compensate the owners?

Capitalism has risks as well as rewards. Take away the risks and we have created another system, one that probably will not reward anyone. In the last week some financial institutions have taken a hit in the mortgage industry. Some borrowers are defaulting. There have been a few calls for bailouts. Sad, but these are adults, who should have known the risks. Life does not come with no-risk guarantees.

As asserted and reasserted on this blog, radical Islam is radical ISLAM. Its most fundamental root cause comes from within Islam itself, not from politics or economics. Radical Islam is a religious phenomenon.

Here is a summary and response to the NYPD report on the homegrown terrorist threat. While the report did not go far enough, it did annoy the usual suspects.

Killing terrorists is like slapping mosquitoes. The swamp needs drained. We shall see what comes of the Bush attempt to remake the Middle East, but at least he recognized that radical change is needed. The shortcomings of the plan may be that it does not go far enough. The Administration is attempting to change the political/economic situation in Iraq, while ignoring the religious situation.

This month's National Geographic has a splendid article on whether or not New Orleans should be rebuilt. Article summary: by geography New Orleans always will be vulnerable to destruction by hurricanes, floods, and is threatened by rising sea levels. Also, the city itself is sinking slowly, the result of the ground drying as water is pumped out of swamps.

Only a small bit of present day New Orleans is above sea level. Until about 1900 that was the city. Then technology progressed to the point that swamps could be drained, levees built, and the city spilled over into areas below sea level. Not a good idea.

I think rebuilding New Orleans to match its pre-Katrina size is an act of hubris. We can control some aspects of nature some of the time. But, keeping New Orleans safe would require big, complex, and perfect systems. No way big, complex human systems will be perfect over a time of centuries.

Let the swamps return and the city shrink.

"You can't always get what you want, . . ."