When crafting laws..

Should laws reflect our values, facts or both? If they reflect only our values, we may share some, but not others. If they reflect facts, we have to agree on what those are. It might even be necessary to have a conversation about it and that's typically when the you-know-what hits the fan. We don't always discuss issues respectfully in this country.

I've been watching in horror as our reproductive rights are being stripped from us in conservative states. Constitutional protection be damned I guess. These legislators evidently are believers in a more patriarchal style of government than we currently have, and are doing whatever they can to bring that about. I thought we were a democracy, but they have a different idea about that. I live in Oregon where I think we have resolved this issue. But then, with the possibility of insane legislators in the most unlikely of places, who knows? What I do know is we need to leave religion out of this discussion..and no, right to life protesters at Planned Parenthood clinics aren't pregnancy coaches. They're interfering with and harassing women. I've seen what they do and it's disgusting.

Separation between church and state was necessary to prevent the federal government from establishing a national religion. It essentially preserved religious freedom, which also implies freedom from the religion of others. Governing by vested interest doesn't respect the diversity that our country represents. In spite of this, according to an article I read in Slate, although ruled unconstitutional, creationism is taught in various public schools around the country. I don't understand how this could even happen. It's interesting, considering they're funded by our tax dollars. Our religious beliefs, or lack thereof, may seem absolute to each of us, but to expect someone else to embrace and live by those views, let alone pay for them, seems ridiculously narrow minded. Religious views should be personal and govern individual behavior..and not be presented as fact in public school. 

Cannabis laws were created based upon the lie that it was dangerous to our health. At least that's what everyone was told..reefer madness and all. Cannabis treats so many diseases and conditions that to ban it makes no sense. Of course it was all about profits, and not our health, but that's way it always seems to go. It doesn't matter how many people are incarcerated, or how many families are destroyed as long as the pot smoking derelicts are locked away so that we are safe. Right. Doesn't matter that people, when high, are typically peaceful and happy. Hippies are scary; therefore, we must imprison them. The thing is, it's not only hippies anymore who use cannabis. A whole bunch of us use cannabis because we know it's safe...anathema, I know..

The stand your ground laws seem to reflect values over facts or sense. And I don't understand that. How can anyone believe that Florida's version doesn't result in horrible consequences? Seems to me that Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis were killed as a result. This is unacceptable. It gives too much leeway for interpretation. But then how people interpret our right to bear arms varies. I interpret it far more narrowly than others do so of course I think we need our gun control laws reformed. That's why I never supported the ending of the Assault Weapon's Ban. We've become an outlaw country and our children aren't safe here anymore. If our values truly reflected concern over safety, we would gladly give up our military style weapons in service of that value. But we don't. Instead, we live in fear and somehow believe we're safe if we have just one more gun. But we're not. Action often beats reaction and there's always going to be someone quicker on the draw. Just ask the families of the children who have died at their schools, where they should have been safe. I'm a gun owner and I believe we should have constitutional protections in place to defend ourselves. I just differ on what those should be. Guns don't make us safe in the long run..intelligent decisions, however, may.

To live in harmony, we have to understand that to do so involves possibly giving up something for the greater good. Most of us learn that concept in childhood. Sometimes it's disguised as sharing, but it's the same thing. There's nothing wrong with having freedom as long as it doesn't encroach on others in a negative way, but even the term "negative" needs an agreed upon definition. Some people don't understand that, so that's where laws come in. But they need to protect us when we need protecting..not when we don't. 

We don't, for example, need protection from cannabis. It's safe and we actually have receptors in our bodies just waiting to connect with cannabis molecules so that our bodies can heal. We also don't need religion taught in public schools. It's too personal and no one can agree on anything. So it makes sense to get that education from somewhere else. We don't need stand your ground laws because we already have the right to defend ourselves. Standing one's ground isn't always appropriate and when you throw in ego, people die.

Our civil liberties and our constitutionally protected rights need to be left alone unless it's to expand them. Blood was spilled fighting for and protecting our voting rights..and the penalties for violating or circumventing them should be severe. Legal medical cannabis dispensaries are another example of local areas circumventing state law by banning them. And the state/federal conflict puts all patients at risk for simply following their state laws. Surely everyone can understand the problem with this type of circumvention. It's cheating to get around the law at the expense of the people the law was enacted to protect.

The fact that we operate this way in this country shows that we're not ready to respect individual differences enough to find real solutions. Sometimes the answer is to respect the law. Basic, I know. The Senate Judiciary Committee just passed the Smarter Sentencing Act, which overhauls federal drug sentencing. We'll see if this goes anywhere, but it's certainly a positive start. Some US Attorneys aren't supportive of it, but that's not surprising. Several tend to ignore state medical cannabis laws all the time, despite being told to leave patients alone. This drives all of us crazy because all we want to do is to continue healing. We're not addicts or criminals, we're just ill and we don't want to be. Imagine that.. If Congress would legalize cannabis federally, and then release all the political prisoners imprisoned for cannabis, we'd actually get somewhere. I'm still hopeful that sanity will return..I mean if CVS Pharmacies can choose to stop selling cigarettes, then anything can happen!

Laws should be based upon facts. We need to fully understand the issue and then be honest about it so that laws enacted actually reflect that understanding, rather than what we have now. It would be nice if they also reflected our values, but that doesn't always happen, so in lieu of that, I would settle for laws based on facts or truth. I might not like them, but at least I would know that no one is doing an end run around my civil rights. And that's more than we can say now..

Judge Baugh MUST resign.

I listened to Melissa Harris-Perry as she read her letter to G.Todd Baugh, the judge in Montana who stupidly blamed the 14 year old child for her teacher raping her. Although he subsequently apologized for his misogynistic statements, his apology appears to be falling on deaf ears. Instead of sentencing the rapist to a minimum of two years as the law provided, the rapist was ultimately given 30 days. Judge Baugh said that the teenager was "older than her chronological age" as justification when he sentenced her rapist to 15 years, and then suspended that to 30 days. Before she was 18, the child victim committed suicide.

As both an incest survivor and a mother, this makes me insane. Montana law states that anyone under the age of 16 cannot consent to sex with an adult. She was 14, for God's sake. How could she consent? She can't. And while the judge believes he should be, in his words, "chastised", he refuses to resign from the bench. 

Judge Baugh's resignation should be the least of what happens to him. This girl committed suicide in 2010, after which the prosecutors said they would drop the charges if the rapist entered a treatment program. Treatment program. Right. Like that's going to help. Rehab has become the way criminals avoid incarceration. Go to rehab, avoid jail. What rehab exists for this child, or her family? What exists to help them avoid the pain and the permanent incarceration of their souls? The system failed them. The judge failed them. And an innocent child is dead.

We don't think right about sexual abuse and its consequences. The fact that the child committed suicide as a result of her abuse should have resulted in more jail time for her rapist, not less. Had she not taken her own life, her emotional and psychological future would still have been in jeopardy. 

Any child who experiences sexual abuse has a difficult time in adulthood, no matter if she is believed or not, or has had therapy or not. It's the same thing as the PTSD our soldiers suffer from. I didn't go into therapy until I was 39 years old, after my mother died. I only told my husband and my boys a few years before that. Sexual assault destroys you. To live with that kind of fear, particularly when it's a parent responsible for the abuse, is beyond terrifying. I only began breathing easier on July 2nd of this year, when my father died. I'll be 56 in October and what he did to me has governed everything about me.

I have spent most of my life trying to survive in the midst of abuse reactions. First of all, I fear everything and everyone. I don't let on to anyone that I feel this way, but I do. Doesn't matter if anyone is doing anything wrong, there's still this underlying terror that sits inside me. And yes, it gets in the way. All the time.

I don't like it when anyone impedes me from doing something. Simple things, like my husband putting his arms around me while I'm doing the dishes for example can completely freak me out. Now that he knows what's going on, he tries not to do that anymore. Other survivors report the same thing. Never come up behind a survivor and prevent her escape. Most people never understand they're doing that because it's not their intention. But if you're standing between me and a way out, I become terrified. I can know with complete certainty that you're not doing anything to hurt me. It doesn't matter. I'm still terrified. But you won't know that.

Motherhood is interesting when you're a survivor. I tend to people-please and I never want to be in a position of not believing someone who is telling the truth. Enter my boys. Gifted and articulate, they could plead their cases with aplomb. So who to believe. Sometimes I would send both to their rooms, and then apologize for doing so. Fortunately, they didn't manipulate me during these times. They knew I was struggling. 

There were times I couldn't answer the telephone when it was ringing (before caller ID), because I was terrified it would be my father. I would stand in front of the telephone, shaking, tears streaming down my face. Then one of the boys would approach me and ask if I wanted him to answer the phone. Sometimes I would let them, and sometimes I wouldn't. After all, I'm their mother. It's my job to protect them. It's not their job to protect me.

I finally told my father what I experience when I hear his voice. He called the business we owned at the time and although I was in a panic attack, I knew I had to speak to him.  I took the phone from my husband and told my father just what I was feeling at that moment. I told him that whenever I hear his voice, I can't speak, I can't breathe, I feel like I'm going to die. I told him then that he cannot call me anymore. But that didn't stop him and his umpteenth wife from doing it again. That time, my husband spoke to my father's wife on the phone, and told her in no uncertain terms that he would not allow them to see me. That was several years ago. 

Now that my abuser is dead, I'm safe.  He had an arsenal and never let any of us forget that fact. But I can talk about it now without worrying what he will do to me. Cannabis helps with my PTSD issues and I'm glad Oregon is allowing that as a qualifying condition now. Survivors need access to something that's safe and effective when coping gets dicey. Believe me, our veterans are thrilled at this new policy change as well. They need it as much as we do.

Survivors just try to survive. That's what we do. It all may seem odd to someone who hasn't experienced this. People may think that since it's not happening anymore, we should just let it go. As if we could. When the judicial system in all its forms doesn't support us, then our last line of defense is gone. Judge Baugh can engage in all the revisionist history he wants. He can't un-ring that destructive bell. He can't bring back that child. He must atone. He must resign and take his good ol' boy attitude with him.

Here is Melissa's letter to the judge. And this is an article I read in Huffington Post.

UPDATE: This is a link to a Think Progress article talking about Judge Baugh reconsidering the 30 day sentence. "Judge Who Sentenced 14-Year-Old’s Rapist To 30 Days In Prison Decides This Sentence Was Illegal"

UPDATE:  The predator is apparently going to be released today.. Just great.