Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she won’t support sex-explicit education… but said she doen’t just support abstinence only programs. What exactly is in between? Talk about semantics. When you add pro-life (anti-choice) with pro-abstinence programs you get… a pregnant 17 year-old daughter.

“Sex-explicit” is a political term designed to make a health class that teaches proactive measures in avoiding STD’s and teen pregnancy sound dirty because many religious traditions forbid premarital sex.

I understand the agony of using words like penis and vagina in an educational high school environment, it must be torturous. Even more terrible is actually acknowledging the glaring statistics of teen sexual activity and then not trying to address it.

Shocking I know, but pretending that kids aren’t having sex or that they’ll stop if we pretend it doesn’t exist doesn’t make HIV or teen sex vanish. If someone is really pro-life how about taking proactive measures on sex education and birth control to help avoid it?

The U.S. has a deplorable teen pregnancy rate compared to other countries.An abstinence ideal might soothe the minds of parents but in practice it’s a religious fundamental joke.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7593735.stm

I was a dinosaur kid. I could name any plastic figure in the class room since kindergarten. My favorite was Triceratops. (Three horns, plated skull and walked on all fours)

My silly childhood story.

When I was young, maybe 10, I remember being in the yard chasing one of our puppies. I playfully crawled on top of the dog house to tease him when I caught a glimpse of a large shape above me. So large and unlike anything I’d ever seen that it startled me. It was a pterodactyl. (Giant flying dinosaur, beak, crest in the back of its head and a long deviled tail.)

It flew right above me, only 30 or 40 feet from the ground. I remember wondering if maybe I should seek shelter or risk being carrier off, but I just couldn’t pull myself away.

It had the largest wing span I’d even seen and what I thought was a long tail. I was paralyzed with amazement and imagination as I watched it pass out of sight. I ran shouting and crawling with excitement into the house.

I found my mother and after expending every last gasp of breath in my little body in telling my mother about seeing a live dinosaur I finally paused to breathe.

That’s when she explained to me that what I saw was a blue heron. With a lean body, large wing span and long stocky feet that when in flight drags behind the bird, giving it an appearance of a tail. My mind slowed down to ponder the reasonable explanation while my heart instantly collapsed into denial. After a moment, I converted back over to reality and laughed at myself.

Nearly two decades later I still remember those few minutes I truly believed I saw a real dinosaur. At that instance in time, dinosaurs really existed (again). I wouldn’t trade the foolish experience for anything in the world because it’s helped to keep my imagination young.

Our editor is constantly urging the Evening Sun staff to blog more. Creative writing can be wonderful, but I loathe participating in the slow de-evolution of the English language vis-a-vis the Internet.

The word ‘blog’ sounds like something a toilet does when it’s been clogged and overflowing onto the bathroom floor, but it originally stood for “weblog.” (Pronounced web-log, not we-blog). The first two letters however became too weary and were dropped because people were, literally, too lazy to lift a finger.

In suit with such monumental laziness and disregard for class and style follows a slew of recreated pseudo-words that tumble forward like dominos - lol, brb, afk, b4, cya, ic, idk, jk, lmao, ne1, nm, np, obtw, omg … and it never stops. I hate it. I feel like I fell through a time warp and found myself text messaging with a cave man who just vomited on a dictionary. Seriously, there are well trained monkeys who can communicate with a few carefully selected letters … I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of such a category.

That being said, one barreling constraint that strangles both imagination and integrity at the same time is censorship. Imagine if one could really just write … nothing else, no filter, nothing. Brutal directness, made for a grateful audience who’s getting sick of shifting through the daily media who-ha that crams up our airwaves. Pulling out that stubborn string of politically correct half truth smothered in a rope of persuasion yanking its benign audience towards this cause or that product. Telling the truth for its own sake would be like running naked through the middle of town, but far more taboo. And that’s why I appreciate blogging.

I admire bloggers for this one great reason, the Internet is a child of the digital revolution and near enough to the edge of that frontier to allow freedom of expression to thrive. A frontier without social pressures or corporate control (yet), a place where anyone can remain anonymous for better or worse. Blogs may be a lot of things, but many represent one of the few places left were we can turn the page to that of an open, honest (and often crazy) thought. 

Would it really kill us though if we wrote ‘I’m laughing out loud’ instead of ‘lol’? Technology is supposed to make us smarter not dumber.

Out of all the things I’ve wanted or tried to be in my life, the country boy calm still finds me at the core. I remember so many intimate moments with the natural world that surrounded my childhood. It’s a place where I discovered my only true sense of spirituality. I love the little things.

Moon

I see the moon and imagine its pull over some distant shore. The tide reaches to meet the stars and falls in a peaceful lullaby. The silver reflections of light shatter like stretched glass across the glistening moonlight dunes.

Wind

To watch the wind that never stops traveling pass through my small corner of the world. An eerie calm laced with the chatter of leaves as the trees become entangled by the restless air. Nature’s serenade played since the dawn of man puts me at ease with its endless tune. Her tall shaken instruments rustle with each breathe and their trunks creak in chorus.

Rain

Air so tense that at any moment it could shatter. A shadow cast across the valley as if god himself peered from behind the hill. The deafening calm peeled away by a shock wave of thunder so loud it shakes loose the heart. A sudden strike of ghostly light illuminates miles of countryside in a pale reflection.

Sex crime accusations are difficult to quantify with physical evidence and so destructive in their charge that it is often enough to convict one’s character on mere implication. 

The word “rape” pulls at the very chords of our emotions with a resonance so deep, it inherently produces prejudice. It takes concentration and effort to pull ourselves back from these natural impulses. 

Maybe it’s because I’m a man, but often I have felt the power of a sexual accusation perturbs people enough that in many cases the defendant must prove himself innocent. Sometimes though I wonder if that’s a good thing.

In our system, however, the complications of a such a crime can be very difficult to figure out. In many cases victims don’t even report their abuses, fearing an embarrassing and public confrontation that may not necessary lead to justice. Other times the assailant is a close friend or loved one (boyfriend, for example) and a victim becomes personally torn. Often it seems these cases involve a sinister cocktail of drugs, alcohol, dysfunction and bad circumstance. Each of these factors contribute a wilder and wilder number of spiraling variables.

So this unfortunately leaves me with little hope of rationalizing my way into a fair decision (the only guilt-free kind), and often I feel contempt towards the idea of giving the accused the benefit of the doubt (also known as reasonable doubt). I believe in the notion of innocence until proven guilty because it’s really the only way we can even attempt to have a fair and just system.

How do we really know what happened, though? If an intoxicated woman says no but then gives contradictory body language or consents physically after expressing an oral objection, is that rape? I guess it depends on if the woman files a complaint afterward or not. What if a woman is threatened and consents from fear of death? What if there is some hideous reason for her to fabricate such an accusation out of revenge or to save some sense of perverted dignity? What if in a moment of intense anger , fear or impaired judgment, a claim is made that a person feels they can’t retract without serious consequence? What if drugs and alcohol are involved and a defendant or victim can’t remember the details of consent and contact? What if a victim passes out and was taken advantage of (date rape) or just said she was because she can’t recall? 

All these scenarios will yield very little physical evidence, especially if a defendant claims the sex was consensual. So basically you create a social stigma of casting additional suspicion upon the accused then you might with other offenses. I know I’m guilty of raising the justice bar just a little because I don’t really believe there are many women out there who would traumatize themselves unnecessarily by enduring the rape kit and follow up examination … Not to mention that creating a false claim is a crime and assuming an accusation might be false is sort of like not giving the victim the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fraud. 

It’s a difficult issue that’ll continue to plague critical thinking jurors for a long time. I feel deep sympathy for both sides. Imagine a prosecutor being a woman’s only hope for justice in a “he said/she said case.” A vindicated rapist and a victim deprived of the ability to have a normal life. Can you imagine being convicted on an accusation or misunderstanding? Have you seen how sex offenders are treated by our justice system and the public? A verdict derived from foggy circumstance and debatable physical evidence - but often that’s what the public demands of our system. People are creatures of feeling and when it’s too close to call, a lot of us go with our instincts. (Which rarely favor a defendant.) 

I wish I had an answer to this one, but I don’t. Just take it a case at a time. Fight the urge to lynch an accused person because what we’re really doing is hanging reason and justice out to dry. While at the same time, we’re embracing the difficulty of prosecution and offering sincere sympathy to a victim who may be utterly lost in our system of reasonable doubt.

Murphy’s movies of the week. Fun, interesting, controversial and some with a moral. Conversation, thought and debate inspired.

Cut and paste into your web browser or click on them if you have a direct link.

My hero and role model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N3WJXK2PAM

Up coming movie that hits an elephant in the room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0MPcN08Zc

Short political clip regarding torture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-BRwv-ADw

Fun music clip on how mankind has evolved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8

Tune in next week.

So it was a short weekend and after serving half a day in a church pew getting harassed by defendants about their lives getting ruined in the paper, I thought I’d take half a day off. I’ve got the time so I thought what the heck.

One defendant who particularly liked to harass me in letters to my editor but complimented me while I was at court was Dean Sacco. I’ve been covering his case since its inception. It began amidst an array of usually violent crimes such as the recent homicides. As a result its original coverage was lower than it might have been if the same thing had happened a year or two earlier. If you are unfamiliar with it I suggest you click on the link below.

http://www.evesun.com/news/stories/2008-02-12/3657/More-details-in-local-womans-FBI-arrest/

The Federal government has now accused Sacco and another woman, Linda O’Connor, with an array of sexual depravities that beggar the most perverted of imaginations. Believe when I tell you that the published media can’t even come close to fully disclosing the torment this little girl appears to have endured.

My day off quickly converted into an afternoon of phone calls, record checking and the acquiring of the official felony complaint. I’ve had the unfortunate personal and fortunate professional opportunity of being privy to many testimonies as a reporter. The first hand testimony given by this young child in her interviews with police and social agencies was included in the complaint.

My morality vomited at least a dozen times as I read through the document. I found myself uncharacteristically traumatized by some of the information. All I could think about this morning as I wrote the piece how the little girl would feel if she read the article.

This all ,in a way, tied into the original complaints I had received earlier in the day. For a long time I thought about the gravity of publishing such intimate and disgraceful information in such a small community. What impact does it have on a life?

I don’t know who’s guilty or not, all I know is that I’m angry. If these people, particularly O’Connor are in fact guilty of these crimes….

I’m not an advocate of the death penalty but I hope that someday they burn in hell.

I spent a large part of my day yesterday at the polling stations around Norwich and interviewing people for an exit opinion poll.

While there I decided to cast my own democratic vote and noticed something that struck me as strange. Both John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani were still included on the ballots.

Both contenders have dropped out of the race but they were still included in all the Super Tuesday’s state ballets. My question is why?

In an election so tightly contested, especially between democrats, why were they not removed? In many states up to ten percent went to either of the false candidates. That ten percent could have impacted several states if those voters had gone another way. (Or maybe not) The whole thing just smelled a little fishy to me, keeping dropped candidates on the polling machines.

I didn’t even notice any notification at any of the locations alerting any misinformed or distracted voter that neither candidate was a candidate at all. Couldn’t we have just snapped off a yellow post-it note and slapped it on the machine saying, “Edwards and Giuliani have withdrawn from election.”

I’m not saying you shouldn’t vote for the long shot but at least vote for one that can actually accept a nomination.

I’m sure there is some bureaucratic process or political motivation that was the culprit.

My state of the union. (quick note version)

There is still a long and arduous path before us to follow. Indeed it is more easily pointed out than traveled but we must move forward.

Forward is an idea of time passing by while progress is made. Times pace is steady and we must also strive to keep moving forward. The speed of progress can be measured in many ways and many forms but when our next step becomes easier than our last we call that a success.

Now imagine a long journey laid before you, like a great nation heading down the corridors of history, we must look ahead. For if we place more value on our speed at the start of the race we will quickly fall victims to our own ambition by the end.

We must look ahead and prepare for obstacles that will be unforgiving when their time is at hand. Issues like global warming, poverty abroad and right here at home. We must open dialogues and encourage our enemies to change. War, like that quickened pace, even the greatest of nation’s stamina is finite and again time will catch up to us if we can not find another solution.

Iraq, Afghanistan began as wars of ideals but the battle field of political and religious conviction can not always be found by a barrel of a gun. Ignorance is their weapon of mass destruction and we as a great nation must quarter our own defenses of enlightenment to empower those so lacking. We must always remember that we represent the culmination of western civilization. Democracy is its crowning achievement and the pillars of social and economic equality still stand strong here today.

We are a great nation of liberating ideals and our advantage is we need not convert our allies but rather simply give them the freedom of choice. We are the greatest nation on earth because all other nations of the world chiefly recognize that besides all else, America stands for freedom, theirs as well as ours.

There will be a day when evil men in the world choose their own selfish desires in opposition to peace and equality and they are a threat not to us but to good nations every where. Together as a nation, as a leader of the entire free world we can never be defeated.

Remember the legacy of our great nation. Remember that up until this point in history we are the only reason they have existed. We stand together here today by the purchase of blood, by our mothers, by our fathers. We must preserve the lessons taught by our heritage. If their must be trouble let in be in our day so that our children may live in peace.

God bless America

I’m a reporter and unless I’m ranting in an editorial piece like the one you’re reading we aren’t allowed to say anything in the ‘news’ ourselves. We can only repeat what others have said.
I often get remarks, “you should do this or cover that.”
I say, “You know, you’re right. That would be a story, can I quote you on that?”
People usually respond, “We’ll you didn’t hear it from me.”
“Fine,” I say, “Who can I talk to, who will go on the record? Where did you get your information?”
“I can’t tell you that, I don’t want to get people in trouble.”
That is a conversation I’ve had a hundred times.

Think about it. I can say I got my information from reliable source ‘A’, hence the whole system of quoting and credibility. Attacking an agency like DSS or the Sheriff’s Office based on unconfirmed, unidentified source, ‘B.S.,’ might be good enough for gossip but not for professional journalism.

Another one frequently asked is, “Why don’t you tell the other side of the story?”
My answer, “No one wanted to tell it to me.”
Take the Plymouth Fires for example, a lot of fishy circumstances and tons of complaining and speculation. Watch how fast those remarks evaporate when I ask, “ Is that on the record?”

So I’m left with what I’m given or what I get, that’s it. The system isn’t perfect and sometimes the truth is dangerous to those that tell it. The truth people find comes from an origin else where and the key is finding that trail of bread crumbs.