There is a lot of land on earth.
Not as much land as there is water, sure, but there is a whole lot of it.
Not only is there a lot of it, but there are all kinds of different nations, states, cities, towns, villages, communes, and the like spotting the landscape. On top of that, there are different cultures, religions, philosophies and laws. On top of that, there are all of these people. People everywhere. Even in places where no people live, people go and visit and check it all out.
So then why would we ever assume that of all possible places, contexts and cultures that the inside of a prison is the best place for anyone?
To use a common example: Alcohol laws. There are things which are legal one place and illegal in another. Consider the dry counties that dot the US (Sometimes w/ enough concentrated dots to qualify as a "swath"). Most penalties in dry counties are relatively minor.
Ramp it up a notch and consider drug laws in the US. The penalties for marijuana use can be far more punitive.
Now consider the options while disregarding whether you personally believe alcohol and marijuana should be legal or illegal. Should folks who disagree with you on what constitutes "mostly harmless fun" be put into prison?
Have you ever *been* to a prison?
Perhaps we should reconsider simple exile. If you are caught and convicted of certain crimes, you are simply not allowed back to the place in which it is illegal. For example, all those humans driving marijuana out of Colorado to neighboring states could, rather than face jail/prison time can choose to be barred from, say, Oklahoma for life.
Let's consider political prisoners around the globe. Perhaps a better way forward for everyone is to encourage/choose exile. Just because there are intractable disagreements does mandate non-coexistence in the world. Coexistence in the world does not require interaction.
We can argue all day about which crimes this would work for and if there are crimes which demand imprisonment, but the folly of removing people from the whole of the world for things which are illegal in one place and legal in another is troubling.
The notion of "state's rights" in the US has long been code for bigotry and prejudice. What if, instead, we agreed that we all have differences and that, quite frequently, this is nothing worth going to prison over? That we can have a broad federal agreement on what the basic laws of the land are without mandating that every place be homogeneous? What if we can have harsh prohibitions against things based on the values of a community without resorting to depriving humans of their humanity?
We could stand up in our communities for what we believe in while not trampling the rights of others.
The phrase "separate but equal" comes to mind here, but is not quite accurate when we consider the connotations of that phrase. In this case, we're not sorting by prejudged characteristics, we're sorting by actions and choices.
I'd love for a legal scholar somewhere to tell me why this is an idiotic idea (or at least something which I don't understand fully) and point me to the relevant literature.
20150211
A Note on Banishmnet
20150118
What if...
... the evidence that shows
"fatness" resembles a communicable disease is just representing that fat folks tend to like fat folks and skinny folks tend to like skinny folks?
Exceptions abound, obviously, but there seems to be a correlation/causation thing here.
I mean, one 130lb person around a dozen 360lb persons seems as awkward as one 360lb person around a dozen 130lb persons.
On the other hand, if you have five 300lb men around one 250lb man, you've got an NFL QB and his O-Line entourage.
The one 6' person surrounded by four 6'5" and over persons is a point guard.
The one 6' person surrounded by four 5'9" persons is a center.
If content is king,
context is everything.
20150113
Good Morning
Fellow Early Risers
I see your lights on,
some flickering.
And now newly some
late-early risers
still pre-sun though.
Oh, salute to the
Nightowls and the
all-nighters:
A nickel's advice
for free:
Move to NYC.
Us Early Risers
Help ensure birds
ease the earth
Around again and &.
All around the world
the truth of bird-
turning all around
the world.
Or at least on
the Eastern
Seaboard.
It was two hours back
In the black when I
awoke to think
I wasn't where I
thought I'd be.
I was on the edge
of the bed,
You see. Which is
not the comfy bit.
So I got up.
Which is hardly the
lightest thing
To wake me.
Somehow one gets
Used to the cars
in a city.
Or the semis
on a "rural route"
in Pennsylvania.
Or the birds
in subirdia,
Maryland.
On the other hand(
Or in the other
mind) the
inside is
the same.
The same misconceptions,
the same quirks of evolution
the same weird biological success
the same types of insight
the same mental failings
the same digestion
the same dreams
the same scars
the same hope
the same me.
Just a
new set of outside sounds
to engage with
when I'm up up
up before dawn
wherever I am.
whenever I am.
whomever I am.
whatever I am.
Now alarms go off an lights come on in not-so-distant houses.
These folks who have the gall to think they are early-risers.
Barks issue from impatient dogs, bays from hounds.
Impatient cats make the mewlings over kneaded bread.
How Roman.
The rest of the world seems more awake.
Is this, for me, to be a good or a bad?
What is it for others? What is liberty?
What is freedom? Are these words which
Comfort us or challenge us? What of the
Word "Security"?
Now later than quarter past six.
How the hours have past.
Now the lights alight.
How the sky becomes all.
Now the hour lights the way.
How the dawn now shapes the day.
Soon the dreaded/lauded lights can go out and instead I can use a distant ball of incredibly hot gas to keep the planet warm and light my way. Now *that* is a pretty cool deal. All of the rest of the mucking about we humans do is lightweight compared to this Sun and Earth thing. Sure, we're designed for the environment in which we exist (how else could it be? Whether we were shaped by where we existed or designed to exist where we're been placed... this remains the way it must be.) but that a stable enough environment exists to engender long-term communication over time and space through text, video, radio, wired internet, wireless everything... that is... something remarkable.
And we can't tell you what our purpose is other than that we are what we are.
Nor can an ant tell anyone its purpose.
Nor can an anteater.
And yet there are mounds of ants.
And yet there are cities of people.
And yet there are wars between peoples.
And yet there are wars between ants.
And yet we play sports and have games and feasts.
Roman is in many ways just human.
But not in all.
All feasts are not the same.
Nor all breakfasts, for that matter.
Back to reading before breakfast.
I wonder what I'm making?
I wonder what we're making?