By Edwin Cooney
Believe it or not (and I can hardly believe it myself these days), at one time in my life I considered studying constitutional law instead of history! Had I done so, I would now be keenly interested in a decision the US Supreme Court is about to make concerning the right of “deadbeat dads” to be represented by counsel before being sent to jail for noncompliance of a civil court’s decision to pay child support.
The case comes out of South Carolina where Michael Turner faces jail. According to the attorneys representing him pro bono, this is because Turner is poor and unable to meet child support payments demanded by a South Carolina civil court. In a recent article by Ronald B. Mincy and Elaine J. Sorensen of the American Urban Institute, “deadbeat dads” can legitimately be divided into two categories: deadbeats and turnips. Deadbeats don’t pay child support because they won’t. Turnips (identified as such because everyone knows you can’t get blood out of a turnip) don’t pay child support because they are flat broke.
This case interests not only Michael Turner and his ex-wife (who insists he could pay), but constitutional lawyers, sociologists, and especially politicians.
As I understand it, the term “deadbeat dad” was popularized in the 1980s. It was the brainchild of angry moneyed conservatives who, having labeled female welfare recipients “welfare queens,” needed a label to describe their ex-lovers and husbands. The issue at the time the “deadbeat dad” categorization was born had more to do with the high cost of welfare than it had to do with the healthy relationship between fathers and children.
A century and a half ago you can be sure that among the noble pioneers who settled the west, there were hundreds of thousands of “deadbeat dads” who left destitute wives and children back east never to return. You can be sure too that among the brave men who made the “supreme sacrifice” in two world wars, there were both heroic soldiers and “deadbeat dads.” Their spouses and children were often sustained on the farms of their parents and grandparents so that they would never be a burden to the taxpayer. However, they, like the spouses and children of today’s deadbeat parents, were the victims of dysfunctional relationships.
As I see it, finger-pointing and labeling people misses the mark.
No one should ever go to jail for being poor. If they are in contempt of a court order, there ought to be a hearing with both sides being represented by counsel. Additionally, the state should provide job training and assistance in job acquisition to families that are in danger. Be that as it may, the real victim of dysfunctional coupling isn’t the taxpayer -- it’s the innocent child of that passion.
I never knew either of my biological parents. Both of my biological parents paid more taxes than they paid attention to me and I received a fine education. However, the plain truth is that until humankind can find a way to prevent pregnancies brought on by dysfunctional passion, emotionally and physically hungry children will continue to be among us.
One of the most unfortunate realities in America today is that society is primarily interested in your money -- not your passion, your concern, your convictions, or your commitment. Furthermore, it is far less interested today than it was before 1981in whether you can earn the money you need. Since society is primarily interested in your money, it assumes that you and I as individuals are mostly interested in money. Hence, office seekers inevitably appeal to your need to protect your money rather than finding ways of involving you to be a positive resource in civic problem solving.
As a voter, are you more often encouraged to stop “evil baby killers” or are you more often urged to adopt an unwanted child? Are you more often encouraged to vote against funding public education or are you more often encouraged to keep illegal immigrants out of the public schools? As a voter, are you more often encouraged to be angry or are you more often encouraged to be a Good Samaritan? Finally, does our political leadership appeal to your resentment or does it appeal to your capacity for energetic creativity?
If it weren’t for the forward-looking and optimistic taxpayers of the nineteen forties, fifties, sixties and seventies, or more specifically, if it weren’t for the existence of a once happy and generous America, my life and the lives of many blind, disabled and orphaned children who were once my school and dormitory mates would be substantially poorer in quality than they are today.
Let’s see now! What did just come tumbling off that turnip truck? Geez Louise! It’s a proud taxpayer!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
“DELIVER US FROM EVIL!”
By Edwin Cooney
“….lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil…”
According to scripture (Matthew 6:9-13), the words above -- part of "The Lord’s Prayer" -- were left to us by Jesus Himself as an example of what we may legitimately ask of God when we pray. Thus, several questions:
What is evil?
Is the commission of evil ever useful to humankind?
Can there be good without evil?
Okay, I’ll confess: I spent five days in or near Las Vegas last week and “sin city” is still on my mind! Las Vegas and the state of Nevada are not only home to the gambler but also home to the prostitute — presumably of either sex. The money spent on “sinful indulgence" is in the billions and those who indulge themselves come from all over the world. Casinos go out of their way to provide creature comforts to more easily draw or—if you prefer—tempt their clientele. Casinos provide free drinks if you are gambling. Food is often exceedingly inexpensive. In short, the good citizens and civic leaders of the State of Nevada are most definitely more interested in your money than they are concerned about your soul.
From the moment most of us open our eyes for the first time, we’re taught to hate all things evil and to love all things that are good. According to my dictionary, "evil" is broadly defined as "reprehensible immorality" or "harmful and destructive wickedness".
Certainly, we are instructed to abhor that which would harm us, but do we? Who doesn't overeat, smoke or drink? Who doesn't lust for the wealth or for the love the eminently successful appear to possess? Might there be some of us who abhor politics as grasping and phony while at the same time yearning to possess the almighty dollar -- regardless of the dirty hands that dollar may have passed through?
Do we not only utilize evil but insist on mastering it? Certainly we do if we regard war as evil! Ah, but we insist that there exist “necessary evils" designed and indulged in for the protection of all that’s good and moral within the borders of America, “…land of the free and home of the brave!”
Of course, Nevadans don’t have a monopoly on gambling or on sin any more than do Americans in comparison with the rest of the world. People from Monte Carlo to Hong Kong indulge in every conceivable sin humankind can imagine. It is just that we Americans in our political pronouncements often pat ourselves on the back as being a tad more moral than decadent Europeans who’ve adopted, among other things, legal prostitution, the decriminalization of marijuana, and -- worst of all -- Socialism with its free education and single payer health care systems.
Meanwhile, here at home, many of us, regardless of political or religious persuasion, would rather spend money entertaining rather than educating or improving ourselves. What other explanation is there to account for the high cost of sports heroes, singers, movie actors and actresses versus the comparatively small salaries we pay teachers, nurses, and most preachers?
As I see it, while there are any number of evil deeds -- murder, rape, thievery, cheating, aggressive war, and so on -- I believe (as did the late great Attorney Clarence Darrow) that most wrongdoing has more to do with addled brains than with addled spirits. Darrow once observed that Americans need more hospitals than they do jails. We know that emotional trauma or brain injuries are a large part of the cause of many evil deeds and yet we seem to prefer violent confrontation with social misfits rather than humane healing treatment for those who offend us. Of course, those who commit unlawful and violent acts must be effectively restrained from repeating such offenses. Nevertheless, if we don’t at least begin to seek alternative ways of protecting ourselves from evil-doers other than through the use of evil methods, evil will surely prevail.
As a believer, I’m convinced that you and I represent God’s greatest creation. Ironically, our greatest sins are ultimately against ourselves and not directly against God, because God is above and beyond the range of our ability to harm. Hence, that which we label "evil" is evil because we are the ultimate victims!
As for America’s “Sin City” (as has often been said of New York, America’s original “Sin City”), it’s a fascinating place to visit but I wouldn’t dare to live there!
As for who will deliver us from evil deeds and institutions, my guess is that God has assigned that task to you and to me!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
“….lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil…”
According to scripture (Matthew 6:9-13), the words above -- part of "The Lord’s Prayer" -- were left to us by Jesus Himself as an example of what we may legitimately ask of God when we pray. Thus, several questions:
What is evil?
Is the commission of evil ever useful to humankind?
Can there be good without evil?
Okay, I’ll confess: I spent five days in or near Las Vegas last week and “sin city” is still on my mind! Las Vegas and the state of Nevada are not only home to the gambler but also home to the prostitute — presumably of either sex. The money spent on “sinful indulgence" is in the billions and those who indulge themselves come from all over the world. Casinos go out of their way to provide creature comforts to more easily draw or—if you prefer—tempt their clientele. Casinos provide free drinks if you are gambling. Food is often exceedingly inexpensive. In short, the good citizens and civic leaders of the State of Nevada are most definitely more interested in your money than they are concerned about your soul.
From the moment most of us open our eyes for the first time, we’re taught to hate all things evil and to love all things that are good. According to my dictionary, "evil" is broadly defined as "reprehensible immorality" or "harmful and destructive wickedness".
Certainly, we are instructed to abhor that which would harm us, but do we? Who doesn't overeat, smoke or drink? Who doesn't lust for the wealth or for the love the eminently successful appear to possess? Might there be some of us who abhor politics as grasping and phony while at the same time yearning to possess the almighty dollar -- regardless of the dirty hands that dollar may have passed through?
Do we not only utilize evil but insist on mastering it? Certainly we do if we regard war as evil! Ah, but we insist that there exist “necessary evils" designed and indulged in for the protection of all that’s good and moral within the borders of America, “…land of the free and home of the brave!”
Of course, Nevadans don’t have a monopoly on gambling or on sin any more than do Americans in comparison with the rest of the world. People from Monte Carlo to Hong Kong indulge in every conceivable sin humankind can imagine. It is just that we Americans in our political pronouncements often pat ourselves on the back as being a tad more moral than decadent Europeans who’ve adopted, among other things, legal prostitution, the decriminalization of marijuana, and -- worst of all -- Socialism with its free education and single payer health care systems.
Meanwhile, here at home, many of us, regardless of political or religious persuasion, would rather spend money entertaining rather than educating or improving ourselves. What other explanation is there to account for the high cost of sports heroes, singers, movie actors and actresses versus the comparatively small salaries we pay teachers, nurses, and most preachers?
As I see it, while there are any number of evil deeds -- murder, rape, thievery, cheating, aggressive war, and so on -- I believe (as did the late great Attorney Clarence Darrow) that most wrongdoing has more to do with addled brains than with addled spirits. Darrow once observed that Americans need more hospitals than they do jails. We know that emotional trauma or brain injuries are a large part of the cause of many evil deeds and yet we seem to prefer violent confrontation with social misfits rather than humane healing treatment for those who offend us. Of course, those who commit unlawful and violent acts must be effectively restrained from repeating such offenses. Nevertheless, if we don’t at least begin to seek alternative ways of protecting ourselves from evil-doers other than through the use of evil methods, evil will surely prevail.
As a believer, I’m convinced that you and I represent God’s greatest creation. Ironically, our greatest sins are ultimately against ourselves and not directly against God, because God is above and beyond the range of our ability to harm. Hence, that which we label "evil" is evil because we are the ultimate victims!
As for America’s “Sin City” (as has often been said of New York, America’s original “Sin City”), it’s a fascinating place to visit but I wouldn’t dare to live there!
As for who will deliver us from evil deeds and institutions, my guess is that God has assigned that task to you and to me!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
Monday, March 7, 2011
READY, GET SET, GO: TIME IN!
By Edwin Cooney
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you…
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with
Nearly forty years -- and Jim Croce’s individual lifetime -- have passed since we first heard him sing those words to us. Scientific scholars tell us that our existence has at least four dimensions—height, breadth, width and time. It is said that we live in three of these dimensions: height, breadth and width because to a large extent we have control (if not entire mastery) over them.
The fourth dimension, time, we merely experience. We can comprehend it, even measure and regulate it within constraints, but we cannot know where and when it began or when it will end for us.
Two factors in my personal life have brought time to my immediate attention lately. I belong to a Friday religious discussion group in my church which has been reading a book called “Spiritual Envy.” Its author is a delightful gentleman, a local talk show host and professor of literature at Cal Berkeley named Michael Krasny. Dr. Krasny has, for much of his lifetime, been struggling with his own agnosticism and this book is about that struggle. Chapters eleven and twelve deal with “Accursed Time” and with “Escaping Time.”
Additionally, on the very day, this date, that your computer receives this writing, my oldest lad, Eric, is celebrating his thirty-third birthday. On Tuesday, March 7th, 1978, the day he was born, I was thirty-two years, three months, and eight days old. His mother had just celebrated her twenty-fifth birthday. Since that splendid day, much has changed. Eric is now grown, his parents are divorced and living in separate states, and he has become a solid American citizen. Since the time that he was born, America has passed from the age of television into the age of the internet and nano technology. In world affairs, the threat to our security by “Godless Communism” has been replaced by the threat of radical religiosity. Still, time marches on.
What concerns you and me the most now are the following questions:
What do I want to do with the rest of my life?
What are my resources to accomplish that which might most please or fulfill me?
How much energy do I have or will I need to realize that fulfillment?
Who can help me to marshal the resources and energy to achieve my goal or goals?
Then there comes the ultimate question:
How much time do I have to do what I may?
In a column I wrote back on December 29th, 2007, I asserted that time was mankind’s invention rather than being a force of nature. I pointed out that we’ve only been keeping exact time for approximately six hundred years. The first spring-loaded clock was invented by Peter Henlein of Nuremberg about 1510. Nearly a century and a half later in 1656, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, designed the first pendulum clock and enclosed it in wood. By the early 1700s, men of means were actually carrying watches with them.
Since I made that observation, friends of mine possessing a much greater intellectual capacity than I have pointed out that my observation is only an element of humankind’s capacity to measure and utilize even the forces that it doesn’t entirely understand. So I stand corrected!
What I do know, as I age ever so gently into my mid-sixties, is that an end is inevitable and it’s as natural as being born. I believe deeply that we need not fear what will come. Whatever pain or discomfort we may encounter is largely man-made by conception, infliction or lifestyle rather than being a gift of the “ravages of time.”
Time is a tool to measure that which is measurable, but we know from our own life experience that many powerful phenomena such as philosophy, friendship, and especially love resist measurement. Those who insist that they depend only on what’s provable -- as I see it -- are suffering from a severe case of denial.
It would appear and I would certainly hope—as do his mother and brother--that my thirty-three year-old has much more time than I do to realize his ultimate professional, personal and/or spiritual fulfillment. Still, one never knows and, since one never knows, the measurability of time, demanding as it can be, may be ultimately a mere illusion.
Every week in the introductory message I attach to each column I thank you for the time you take to read what I write—and (as I see it) I owe that to you as a reader. Years ago, St. Louis Cardinal sports announcer Jack Buck used to close his post game show in the following way which I’m about to use in closing this week’s effort:
Thanks for your time this time -- and till next time, please consider this as being…
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED.
EDWIN COONEY
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you…
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with
Nearly forty years -- and Jim Croce’s individual lifetime -- have passed since we first heard him sing those words to us. Scientific scholars tell us that our existence has at least four dimensions—height, breadth, width and time. It is said that we live in three of these dimensions: height, breadth and width because to a large extent we have control (if not entire mastery) over them.
The fourth dimension, time, we merely experience. We can comprehend it, even measure and regulate it within constraints, but we cannot know where and when it began or when it will end for us.
Two factors in my personal life have brought time to my immediate attention lately. I belong to a Friday religious discussion group in my church which has been reading a book called “Spiritual Envy.” Its author is a delightful gentleman, a local talk show host and professor of literature at Cal Berkeley named Michael Krasny. Dr. Krasny has, for much of his lifetime, been struggling with his own agnosticism and this book is about that struggle. Chapters eleven and twelve deal with “Accursed Time” and with “Escaping Time.”
Additionally, on the very day, this date, that your computer receives this writing, my oldest lad, Eric, is celebrating his thirty-third birthday. On Tuesday, March 7th, 1978, the day he was born, I was thirty-two years, three months, and eight days old. His mother had just celebrated her twenty-fifth birthday. Since that splendid day, much has changed. Eric is now grown, his parents are divorced and living in separate states, and he has become a solid American citizen. Since the time that he was born, America has passed from the age of television into the age of the internet and nano technology. In world affairs, the threat to our security by “Godless Communism” has been replaced by the threat of radical religiosity. Still, time marches on.
What concerns you and me the most now are the following questions:
What do I want to do with the rest of my life?
What are my resources to accomplish that which might most please or fulfill me?
How much energy do I have or will I need to realize that fulfillment?
Who can help me to marshal the resources and energy to achieve my goal or goals?
Then there comes the ultimate question:
How much time do I have to do what I may?
In a column I wrote back on December 29th, 2007, I asserted that time was mankind’s invention rather than being a force of nature. I pointed out that we’ve only been keeping exact time for approximately six hundred years. The first spring-loaded clock was invented by Peter Henlein of Nuremberg about 1510. Nearly a century and a half later in 1656, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, designed the first pendulum clock and enclosed it in wood. By the early 1700s, men of means were actually carrying watches with them.
Since I made that observation, friends of mine possessing a much greater intellectual capacity than I have pointed out that my observation is only an element of humankind’s capacity to measure and utilize even the forces that it doesn’t entirely understand. So I stand corrected!
What I do know, as I age ever so gently into my mid-sixties, is that an end is inevitable and it’s as natural as being born. I believe deeply that we need not fear what will come. Whatever pain or discomfort we may encounter is largely man-made by conception, infliction or lifestyle rather than being a gift of the “ravages of time.”
Time is a tool to measure that which is measurable, but we know from our own life experience that many powerful phenomena such as philosophy, friendship, and especially love resist measurement. Those who insist that they depend only on what’s provable -- as I see it -- are suffering from a severe case of denial.
It would appear and I would certainly hope—as do his mother and brother--that my thirty-three year-old has much more time than I do to realize his ultimate professional, personal and/or spiritual fulfillment. Still, one never knows and, since one never knows, the measurability of time, demanding as it can be, may be ultimately a mere illusion.
Every week in the introductory message I attach to each column I thank you for the time you take to read what I write—and (as I see it) I owe that to you as a reader. Years ago, St. Louis Cardinal sports announcer Jack Buck used to close his post game show in the following way which I’m about to use in closing this week’s effort:
Thanks for your time this time -- and till next time, please consider this as being…
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED.
EDWIN COONEY
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