Let the churches do it

Kim Davis, the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, is not the only public official to refuse to perform or certify marriages. This should come as no surprise; marriage has always been both religious ritual and legal contract. It was inevitable that the two would collide in a republic in which citizens disagree about the appropriate degree of separation between church and state. We can resolve this conflict by getting government out of the business of recognizing marriages.

Civil marriage is becoming obsolete. Human beings invented marriage to legitimize sexual relationships in order to hold parents responsible for the care and upbringing of children. Our idea of legitimizing sexual relationships is becoming providing documentation that both parties consent to a sexual encounter. The state now enforces child support, whether a child’s parents have ever been married or not.

When a county government issues a marriage license, it takes on the responsibility of adjudicating division of property and pensions when the marriage ends in divorce a few years later. More of us now circumvent the dating-to-divorce pipeline.

Marriage can remain a religious ritual or sacrament for those who wish to participate, but county and state governments do not need to keep track of who marries and who divorces. We will still need the courts to administer division of property and pensions when a couple decides to go their separate ways, but the courts can handle such problems as contract disputes.

Removing the certification of marriages and the performance of weddings from the job descriptions of public officials would be an important step in the separation of church and state. The churches should welcome such separation. The greater degree of separation, the less the government will interfere with religion.

The Future of Employment

You can get good help, these days.

Overview

If you have ever owned or leased a household robot, you may have wondered whether the cost and maintenance were worth it. It may have been when you learned that no one sells a robot that can fold clothes.

This is just one of the myriad tasks that still require a pair of human hands. However, hiring a pair of hands can be more trouble than it’s worth. If you have ever hired someone to care for an elderly relative, you have probably wished for a robot when you heard excuses for absenteeism.

We can provide a customized solution to your unique needs. We provide the precision of human hands with the reliability and efficiency of a robot.

Who We Are

All Hands is an employment agency specializing in placement in:

• Domestic Help
• Nursing & Medical Assisting
• Entertainment
• Hospitality
• Personal Services (Hairdressing, Childcare)

Our advantage over robot leasing organizations is that we provide human hands when the job requires it. Our advantage over other placement firms is that we provide workers that work as efficiently and reliably as robots, for much less cost than other placement firms. We take care of all the training, payroll and scheduling.

How It Works

All of our workers are shareholders. They receive shares of stock when they have our patented Training Receptor™ hardware installed in their sensorimotor cortex. This memory chip gives the shareholder the ability to directly download Task Library™ software from our vast library of specific tasks.

By downloading the Hand Movement™ data directly to their sensorimotor cortex, our shareholders avoid time-consuming training. A shareholder can report to an assignment within 60 minutes in most cases, and begin work immediately - with minimal or no supervision.

Our Task Library™ includes instruction on Effective Listening, for tasks not in the database. The memory chip keeps track of deadlines and work completed, and streams virtual reality entertainment to the shareholder.

The memory chip enables our shareholders to know when and where to show up for work each day. Our shareholders receive dividends, a stipend and medical care. If one shareholder is ill, another shareholder can take his or her place for that day.

If your specific task is not in our Task Library™, the shareholder may require some orientation. Once he or she learns the task, the muscle memory is banked in the shareholder’s memory chip. It can then be uploaded to our Task Library™, so that the precise muscle movement data can be downloaded to any of our shareholders.

If you have a task that requires a pair of human hands, but you do not want the expense or headache of hiring, visit our order form. You can place your order, have your work completed, and not have to think about it again until you receive our bill.

Some workers have criminal records, but this won’t be an issue for clients. All actions are recorded by the shareholder’s memory chip, so if there is an allegation of theft, damage or injury, the file can be reviewed by all interested parties. No worker with a criminal record is ever assigned childcare tasks.

The Confederates didn't invent slavery

I didn’t plan on contributing to the discussion on the Confederate Battle Flag, but today I learned that the Ohio State Fair plans to prohibit the sale of merchandise with the flag at this year’s fair. My only credential for my contribution to this discussion is that I once successfully petitioned my employer to have the Stars and Bars removed from the building where I worked. Besides my concern about offending African-Americans, I didn’t like to see that flag flying in a free state. Even in a slave state, they lost the war, for crying out loud. I wanted at least to see it pushed back across the Ohio.

Now, I think that we should think about the consequences before we start banning or prohibiting the flag. The first thing that comes to mind is arguments over definitions. I believe that the Confederate Battle Flag has 11 stars to represent the 11 states of the Confederate States of America. Well, what if somebody sells a hat or other item that has 10 stars on it? Could the vendor claim that it does not meet the definition of the Confederate Battle Flag? Or, what if they start making and marketing the actual flag of the Confederate States of America? It’s not as visually appealing as the Battle Flag, but it represents the same thing.

Banning the Confederate Battle Flag would make it easier for us to forget about the millions of slaves working for us every day. If you consume sugar, cannabis, coffee, or many other products, you benefit from the work of slaves. Slavery has been with us at least since we invented civilization. Somewhere in the negotiations between farmers and the warriors they hired to protect them, the farmers lost. It became even more hellish when we came up with cash crops.

Abolitionists succeeded in eliminating legal slavery, but not de facto slavery. Today’s slaves are not counted as such on a census. Today’s slavers think of themselves as good negotiators. Our consumer culture and its economy depend on keeping the cost of labor as low as possible. It is appropriate for a state agency to discontinue displaying a symbol of oppression, but we should let the free market reveal where people’s sympathies lie. I would hope that merchants would stop selling the Confederate battle flag because of lack of demand, but I don’t see that happening in my lifetime.

The Stars and Bars serve as a reminder that the United States became a wealthy nation because black people harvested the cotton. If we continue to see the Confederate Battle Flag flown, it reminds us that many people in our society need reminding that we are all God’s children. It should also serve as a reminder that slaves provide our comfortable way of life. We fought a war to end legal slavery in our country. Let the vanquished of that war remind us that we still have much to do.

It's incompetence

The more I work at getting a big picture of current events, the less I see racism and evil conspiracies by oligarchs, and the more I see incompetence and irresponsibility. I know racism and evil oligarchs exist, but I am starting to think that they receive more than their fair share of blame for our problems. Specifically, much of what we perceive as racism on the part of law enforcement officers is the incompetence of police, the media, those confronted by the police, greedy oligarchs, and the rest of us.

I'm not qualified to say whether the officer in McKinney, Texas acted appropriately or not, just from watching the viral video. I get the impression that controlling that situation would have been an enormous challenge for any police officer. Throwing the black girl in the bikini to the ground may not have been a good idea, but he did not seem to take race into account when he brandished his weapon.

The video reminded me of a question I had shortly after the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri last summer: How did the officer and the shooting victim end up in the front seat of the police car, struggling for the officer's weapon? I get the impression that the officer was unprepared and the shooting victim was unnecessarily combative.

The first reports I heard about the incident in McKinney glossed over the reason the police went to the pool party in the first place; that the party had gotten out of control. A fight broke out between two women. Also, the party was overwhelmed with uninvited guests. I don't know what the women were fighting about, but I heard that the uninvited guests learned about the party from stray tweets.

So, personal conflicts escalated to the point where the police needed to be called. One officer used more force than necessary. People at the scene were uncooperative and even obstructive. The media got a hold of the video and focused on the most sensational thing they could find in order to gain advertising revenue.

The media pander to our thirst for the sensational.  A few years ago I saw a story on the news about the police in London arresting a protester swimming in the Thames. The story said nothing about what the guy was protesting. They don't concern themselves with getting all the facts or presenting all sides of a story.

We like to think that the evil oligarchs undermined the media, public education and the government in order to control us. We like to say that the evil oligarchs are responsible for the race baiting that divides us. This assumes a certain level of competence on their part. I think they're making it up as they go along, just like the rest of us. They know they can make money by giving us what we want and don't think about the consequences.

The oligarchs don't need to undermine our government, media or public education. They just wager on our apathy. We wanted a less rigorous educational system, and the oligarchs didn't think that giving it to us would result in a less educated workforce for them. We wanted cheap cameras and free social media, so the oligarchs made it possible. They don't care if we use these things to share videos of our cats or our racist cops, as long as it turns a profit.

The rest of us are incompetent either because we are racist or because we don't appreciate what a law enforcement officer's duty is. Racists will use the video of the pool party to as an example of black people behaving badly, ignoring the fact that white people behaved just as badly. Those who assume racism on the part of the police will see only the black girl in the bikini being thrown to the ground. They will not appreciate how the officer and his comrades had an extremely volatile situation on their hands, and had a duty to prevent anyone from getting hurt.

There is plenty of racism and greed in the world. There are probably also plenty of conspiracies, but I now think most conspiracies come about to cover up incompetence. I am starting to think that incompetent law enforcement officers are more dangerous than racist officers who are at least competent at police work. If they're competent, they will know how to use force appropriately.

Before we accuse the police or anyone else of racism, perhaps we should examine the incompetence of all parties to dispute, and examine our own competence as citizens and media consumers.

Mohammedans and Islamophobes

Muhammad pulling his chest open in William Blake's illustration of Dante's Inferno

When I was in school I learned that Muslims took great offence at being referred to as “Mohammedans.” They took offence because they do not worship Mohammed, they worship Allah. Mohammed was the prophet of Allah, the One God. The killings and attempted killings of cartoonists who depicted Mohammed make me wonder if that attitude has changed, or if there is something else going on. As I understand it, those who want to kill cartoonists for drawing disrespectful images of Mohammed wish to prevent or punish blasphemy.

Pamela Geller and her organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, made it clear that some Muslims are willing to kill and die to defend the honor of their prophet. I am struggling to understand this, because I have read arguments by Muslims against Christianity to the effect that Christians worship a man instead of God. They say that Christians worship Jesus as an idol. If a Muslim is willing to kill and die because he considers offensive cartoons blasphemous, then they also worship a man instead of God.They have turned Mohammed from a prophet to an idol, just as they say that Christians have turned Jesus of Nazareth into an idol.

I suspect that the young men who lost their lives in Texas, as well as the men who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks, were manipulated by leaders who cynically use religion to advance a political agenda. Religions have a long history of being abused for political or financial gain. I suspect that the men who died in Garland knew little more about Islam than the people we label as “Islamophobes.” One thing that leads me to believe this is a quote by the Prophet Mohammed that I heard on the network news shortly after 9/11: “The most excellent jihad (struggle) is that for the conquest of self.” This sounds like a cousin of something Jesus said: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” Matthew 7:5, (KJV) Another thing that leads me to this conclusion is conversations I have had with Muslims. They seemed like decent and reasonable people to me.

I have two requests:

Mohammedans - Please ask yourselves if you really want to prevent or punish blasphemy. The Jews of ancient Judea accused Jesus of blasphemy, which only helped to empower Christianity as a religion. Yes, the Christian church has a history just as bloody as Islam. This is why so many people now call themselves atheists.

Islamophobes - I don’t want to live under Sharia law either. My disagreement with you is over methodology more than philosophy or ideology. The two men who died in Garland thought they were going to Glory. They will probably inspire others to do the same. The cartoon contest helped to bring to light how determined some Muslims are to squelch freedom of expression, but it will lead to more violence and make some Muslims more determined to impose Sharia law upon us. Please consider some advice from the Old Testament: “ If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.” Proverbs, 25: 21-22, (KJV) Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated that this can actually work.

The Islamicists in our country may not need bread and water, but they need help to overcome brainwashing. Only kindness can do that.

Two Quotes

I need two quotes to help me start:

“If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested” - Thomas Wolfe

Liberals and conservatives may dislike my opinions.

“What happens to a dream deferred?" - Langston Hughes

Events in Ferguson, Missouri, answer Mr. Hughes’ question.

Liberals: Remember that criminals are well armed, too. They frequently shoot police officers and other citizens.

Conservatives: Remember that we have given the black man little reason to trust us.

If a crime happens where you live or work, you want an effective police force. You want them armed well enough to prevent crime or make an arrest. You also want them well trained and observant.

If your kid got shot to death by the police and no one will tell you exactly what happened or who shot him, you might perceive the police as just another gang. If not a gang, then a modern version of patrolling for runaway slaves.

If the young black man was walking down the middle of the street and blocking traffic like the chief said, that would be a reason for an officer to detain him. The day after the shooting, I read about a struggle between the officer and the young man inside a police vehicle, which spilled out onto the street. Was he going for his weapon? Did he charge the officer after they got out of the car?

I knew a black guy back in the 1980s who had grown up in rural Georgia during the 30s He confirmed what I heard in a sociology class; that they could not expect help or protection from local law enforcement; they were discouraged from pursuing an education; they could not vote to do something about changing their circumstances. They were effectively barred from well-paying work.

Racism is hardwired into our culture. Police officers do not need to profile or target young black men for an unarmed man to get shot. If an officer has to detain a young black man acting suspiciously, he’s most likely going to assume the guy is armed, right or wrong, just to make sure he doesn’t get shot himself. The officer may also assume that warrants have been issued for the young black man’s arrest, that he’s holding illegal drugs, or that he has committed or will commit a crime that day.

The young black man might assume that he will receive an execution on the spot for strong arm robbery. He might assume that the officer is looking for an excuse to shoot him. The young black man may assume that if he is not killed, he will serve time on real or trumped up charges. If he has enemies in the penal system, he may have nothing to lose by trying to fight his way out.

Police: Consider training dollars as an investment. If the officer had a struggle with the young black man, he most likely lost control. Did he lose his cool when the kid got mouthy? Adequate training and discipline can prevent bloodshed and save money. If you’re on the take or incompetent, don’t be surprised if citizens fail to respect you.

Young Black Men: Organize! If you believe the police are out to get you, you must work together. Rioting and looting will not solve the problem. Neither will individual resistance. Get some discipline. Get an education. Stay out of trouble. Vote.

Everyone Else: Please think before you post things on social media. Did the officer shoot because he feared for his life? Did the young black man ignore the officer’s warnings? Why do the Ferguson police want to restrict information about the incident? How extensively have they investigated the shooting? Remember that television and the internet are not interested in giving you accurate information, they are interested in ratings and shares and likes.

Find Me! (Based on a true story)

Dear Dad,

In a few years I will probably have to go on a search for Michael. He will get lost somewhere. I recently told him about the time that I got lost at the state fair and you had to find me. Michael is eight now, I was 11 then. The older he gets, the more I remember things that happened when I was his age. The similarities strike me sometimes. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have an account of searching for me at the state fair written in a journal stashed away somewhere. I would like to compare notes so that I can have a clue about where to look when it is my turn.

Mom took Suzanne and me to the fair that year. She generously allowed us to take along our friends, Ronnie and Barb. After we walked around a bit and got something to eat, Mom told Ronnie and me that we could go off on our own. She told us to meet her and the girls at the bottom of The Ramp to the stadium so we could all go to a concert together. I shouldn’t have listened to Ronnie. I thought that the bigger ramp I saw was the one Mom was talking about, but Ronnie insisted that the one he selected was the right one.

We waited and waited until after dark. We went to look for Mom and the girls, and stopped to look at stuff along the way. I went to use the restroom. When I came back out, Ronnie was nowhere to be seen. That was when he went to find a payphone to call home. I think I remembered that you told me if I got lost to stay where I was. I decided to wait until someone came to rescue me. I don’t know why I didn’t get the same idea that Ronnie did, and call home. I think you asked me about that when you came to pick me up at the fairgrounds police station. I now understand why you were baffled that I just sat in one place until after midnight.

I was so literal-minded and legalistic in my thinking that I wanted to follow the instruction to remain in place. I didn’t stop to think that you gave me those instructions when I was six. I think I wanted to be rescued. I wanted to be found. I was scared to ask anyone for help. When no one came for me, I assumed I had been abandoned. I thought I would be on my own after that. I imagined myself as Oliver Twist, and someone like Fagin would take me under his wing and teach me how to pick pockets.

I saw you driving through the fairgrounds after the fair had closed for the night, but you didn’t see me. I was thrilled because I knew you were looking for me. Not much later, a police officer approached me and took me to the State Fair Police Station. I was amazed that he knew my name. While I was waiting for my rescue, I remembered reading in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not that the Minnesota State Fair had its own police department, jail and even its own court. I thought it was so cool to see this come to life. I noticed the officer’s insignia that read “Minnesota State Fair Police.” I took an interest in the old photographs and other memorabilia on the walls of the police station. I thought if I had to go to jail, it was so cool that the jail would be at the state fair. You arrived about 15 minutes later and we had a long ride home. We got home a little after one o’clock in the morning. Mom and Ronnie were sheepish and apologetic to me the next day. Suzanne and Barb thought I was an idiot.

If you do have your version of this story written in a journal or diary, I may ask you to provide it to a psychiatrist one day. I may also want to ask if you can remember things about raising me that are like things about raising Michael. For example, it took months to teach him how to put on his socks. I worked at it every morning and didn’t think he would ever learn. He didn’t seem interested in learning it. Then, one day, he put on his socks like he’d been doing it for years.

I want to get a diagnosis for myself. I thought about seeking an Asperger’s diagnosis for myself a few years ago, but thought better of it. My temptation then was to use such a diagnosis to get a disability check. From what I observed though, getting a disability check can be more work than work. Besides, I didn’t want that to be the example that I provide to my son. I now want to get a diagnosis so that I can contribute to autism research.

Michael got his diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder when he was three. Since then, I have learned about autism and wondered if I would have received the same diagnosis if I had been tested when I was a kid. The online quizzes I have taken have indicated that I am not on the autism spectrum. I think they would have if they had been around when I was young. The last quiz I took reminded me that an online quiz is not a substitute for a professional diagnosis.

I learned how to adapt in my 53 years. I learned how to make eye contact by looking at the space between a person’s eyes when talking to them. I learned how to make small talk and how to get along with people by reading Ann Landers and Miss Manners in the newspaper. I had help from many people. I am grateful that I had high school English teachers who encouraged me to try out for the debate team and school plays. Those experiences taught me to interact with people and to confront fear. I managed to make a few close friends, but two of them have died. I have gotten better at organization, but still have much to learn. I am often surprised by the fact that I am a supervisor at my job. I am even more surprised to find myself going home to a wife and son at my own house.

I think some of our family stories could help those investigating the genetic components of autism. One that comes to mind is the time when I was in second grade and you asked me one evening why I was late for school the day before. I told you how I had stopped to watch a squirrel run along a power line and tried to figure out what he was saying to me when he looked at me and chattered at me. You were unsuccessful at suppressing a laugh before you scolded me. I figured you had done something similar when you were a kid.

I recently convinced Rose that Michael was not being a smart-aleck when he asked, over and over, “Are you angry?”  I think one of his therapists suggested that he ask that. I had to work at learning how to read people’s emotions. I remember both you and Mom getting exasperated and asking if I could not tell when people were upset. I admire my son for working at learning this more directly than I did.

When Michael was undergoing testing for ASD, I had to interpret for the clinicians once. They showed him an array of pictures and told him to answer questions by pointing to the appropriate picture. The woman asked him, “Michael, what do you use to watch cartoons and videos?” Michael did not point to any of the pictures until I said “What do you use to watch DVDs, Michael?” He pointed to the picture of a TV. I was able to clarify in that situation because I happened to know that we did not refer to them as “cartoons” or “videos” at our house, but as “DVDs.”

The incident makes me think that I might be a useful guy to have around for clinicians studying children on the spectrum. I could help them tell the difference between what’s autistic and what’s idiosyncratic of a child’s family. I think I could talk to the children in such a way as to get them to participate in activities the clinicians want to observe. People have told me that I have a lot of patience with Michael. It’s just because I remind myself that he is listening even when it seems like he is not. When I used to drop Michael off at preschool there was a nonverbal little boy who often grabbed me by the finger and would lead me to something in the room, like the train set. I never knew what he was trying to communicate, but his mother was tickled that the boy was trying to communicate something to somebody.

Maybe I can be the guy at a clinic or classroom that teaches the kids to put on their socks and look both ways before they cross the street.  I have accomplished both of these things. I enjoyed being a guest reader in Michael’s classroom. Maybe I could be the guy that reads the same books over and over to the kids. If I don’t work with autistic kids, I hope that I can provide data that will help people on the spectrum adapt to adult life if I undergo lengthy interviews, cognitive tests and physical examinations. I want to donate my brain to science, but I want to do it while I am still alive.

Perhaps the best thing I could do for Michael and other young people on the spectrum would be to share my mistakes with them. I have plenty to share. If they can put them to good use by learning what to avoid, I will have done my duty.

When I see Michael get frustrated, I remember how I first started to get the idea when I was seven years old that I had a burden or disadvantage that I could not name. I did well at schoolwork, but all the other kids thought of me as stupid. I missed things going on around me. I understand my son’s frustration. I want to be able to help him overcome it by articulating what I did to overcome it. I think I have done some of this, but I think science has much to learn about autism. I have a lot to learn about communication, too. I think there are many adults who grew up before their parents ever heard about Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorder who could contribute data to the body of knowledge about the phenomenon.

When I get the call that Michael is missing, I think I will have some clues as to where to look. If he is not in the last place anyone saw him, I will have to rack my brains to remember conversations with him. He may be acting out some drama that he saw on TV or read in a book, like I imagined myself as Oliver Twist or Huckleberry Finn. Besides the time at the fair, there were other times in my life that I ran into you in unlikely places and your timing was good. You have told me stories about how it was the same with you and your dad. I hope this talent is genetic.