An Insult To Make a Parent Proud

A couple of weeks ago, my 9 year old son became enraged, full of the kind of righteous indignation at the unfairness of the world that only children can summon. Shaking and red-faced, he sputtered, "You are soooo mean. It's like you're ...." He stammered until he hit upon the worst thing he could think of. "It's like you're Dick Cheney," he wailed, "and I'm the Bill of Rights."

It was a powerful insult, but I still wouldn't let him jump from bed to bed in our hotel room.

Summer Reading

The Little Blue State Legislature concluded its two year legislative session last night, or more accurately, at 5 o'clock this morning. Once the session ends, my work returns to a more normal schedule: no driving to Capital City several days a week; no checking the state website to see what mischief those crazy senators are cooking up for the defenders of liberty; no sitting outside representatives' offices hoping for an opportunity to clue them in on the (often unintended) damage they are about to inflict on the constitution. Don't get me wrong. I love what I do, and some of the finest people I know are politicians. No really, I mean it, but that's a blog post for another day.

The good news is that there's a four-day weekend coming up, and starting the following Friday, a week at the beach. I've been accumulating books at an alarming rate, and the tower of reading matter next to my bed is both enticing and daunting. So here goes --

Cost Roxana Robinson
The People of the Book Geraldine Brooks
Nudge Cass Sunstein and Richard Tholer
Certain Girls Jennifer Weiner
Here if You Need Me Kate Braestrup
March Geraldine Brooks
Influence Robert Cialdini
Digging to America Anne Tyler
Secrets in the Dark Frederick Buechner
Property Valerie Martin
Writing Tools Roy Peter Clark
Within These Walls Carroll Pickett
Keys to Drawing Bert Dodson
Fabriano sketchbook

I'll be posting reviews as I work down the pile.

Forty Years Ago --

From the Revised Common Lectionary for Sunday April 13, 2008

Acts 2:42-47

Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

The year: 1968, a Sunday in Springtime. The place: my grandparents' church in a small Southern town. They are Bible-thumping, no dancing, no cards, no alcohol, country Methodists. I am eight years old, busily cutting pictures from magazines and gluing them to manila paper to illustrate the Bible story. Excited by the idea that the early Christians banded together to share what they owned with whoever needed it, I ask the Sunday School teacher why we can't do that, why we can't just share everything, rich and poor people, white and black people together. Jesus would like that, right? All the people eating their food with glad and generous hearts would be great, wouldn't it?

This is the first time I hear the word Communist. . .

Vermont Voters Indict Bush and Cheney

Voters in Marlboro and Brattleboro, Vermont, passed articles of indictment against George Bush and Dick Cheney. Now, that's what I call a voter initiative!

I wonder what happens if the Brattleboro Police Department tries to serve the warrant. Is there an inter-agency contract between the Department of Homeland Security and the Marlboro Police Department? Does this mean that the President and Vice President can't come into Vermont without getting arrested? What about skiing in 2009? The mind boggles.

Who Says Lawyers Can't Preach?

This just in from the Little Blue State newspaper (names have been changed to protect the innocent) --

216th anniversary of Bill of Rights celebrated in Capital City

By M M, The News Paper

Posted Sunday, December 16, 2007

Capital City – Ruby, executive director of the Super Duper Civil Rights Organization of Little Blue State, said it used to be that she would give talks and point to civil rights abuses that occurred historically.

Someone in the audience would always say: "We're not like that. We won't do that," she said.

But Saturday, as she spoke at Bill of Rights Day in the Little Blue State, she focused on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution -- the right of people to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure.

Ruby described it as "a bedrock of our government."

And she gave the crowd some timely examples that she said raise questions about how far a government can and should go: detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo, the government's use of security letters to get information about individuals and the FBI files on a pacifist group that is opposed to the War in Iraq.

Her fear, she said, is "at the end of the day, there will be a government that will be stripped of funding ... with nothing left but police powers."

Her organization is often widely criticized when attorneys defend unpopular positions.

"We only have one client," she said. "And that's the Constitution and its Bill of Rights."

When conflicts arise, "most of the time there's somebody out there who wants to limit those rights," she said.

Ruby was one of two speakers at the Capitol City Bill of Rights Day. The event marks the 216th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution on Dec. 15, 1791.

Even before it was adopted, Ruby said, the document was controversial.

The guarantees outlined in the Bill of Rights "were already widely acknowledged in the colonies," she said.

In fact, the Little Blue State already had its own Declaration of Rights -- a document from 1776 that is "almost completely forgotten today," said state archivist, Document Man.

One argument opposing the Bill of Rights was that it covered rights the people already had or natural rights that couldn't be taken away, he said.

"The Bill of Rights was kind of an exclamation point," he said. "It confirmed what people believed."

Another argument against the document was that the fledgling nation didn't have a person with the power of a king who would hold so much power over the people, he said.

For Ruby, protection of the Constitution and Bill of Rights is not a partisan issue.

On Saturday, a member of the audience asked Ruby why her organization takes on cases like the Little Town, Pa., municipal ordinance that proposed punishing landlords and employers for doing business with undocumented immigrants.

The ordinance was struck down in July.

"The Constitution protects everyone in the United States whether they are a citizen or not," she explained.

Those who attended the anniversary got two special treats. First, they got to see the Little Blue State's copy of the Bill of Rights.

Document Man also brought out Little Blue State's signed ratification of the Constitution.

The document, written in faded brown ink, is an important part of Little Blue State's history, Document Man said.

"I pulled it out of the vault this morning," he said.

Where've You Been?

Garden Girl and I have had a busy couple of weeks.
*I've spent three full work day days in the Little Blue State Women's Prison taking depositions of the warden and other high-level staff. Arrgghh!
* Witter celebrated his 19th birthday with two dinners, one on the actual day with me, Nashy, and two of his friends, and one with all the family, including grandparents.
* We packed off Shiny to West Virginia to build houses with Almost Heaven Habitat for Humanity. She packed her own hammer, screwdriver, tool belt and work boots. She came home with her pants duct-taped together and declared that Sawzall is her favorite tool.
* We hosted 30+ people for dinner to say goodbye to my wonderful staff attorney who is departing to a new job in DC and hello to my wonderful new staff attorney who is arriving from her her old job in DC.
* Sold a business.
* And tonight, we spent the evening with friends at the beach.

A Good Day in the Little Blue State

I have met these folks, and the good news is that they were not in the Little Blue State today. A gay rights bill is before the General Assembly for the fifth time in ten years. If passed, the bill will ban discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Over the years, there have been protests and hearings and threats and name-calling. But not today. In a Senate hearing today, only three people spoke against the bill. More than twenty people spoke in favor, including several statewide elected officials. No protesters, no posters, no hate-mongering. Well, maybe a little hate-mongering, but it wasn't very effective.

As soon as the hearing ended, we moved down the hall to the Governor's office where she signed into law a bill that will allow same-sex couples and dating couples to obtain Protection From Abuse Orders in domestic violence cases. It doesn't sound like a cause for celebration, but it is. This new law will save lives.

Tonight when I came home, I ran across this statement from Mildred Loving, who spoke out for marriage equality for same-sex couples on the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court opinion that struck down Virginia's ban on inter-racial marriage.

Here's a picture from the Senate hearing. I'm the one who's Easy to Spot in a Crowd.