Rush to Judgement ** updated **

I watched a movie on TC last night Lizzie Borden Took an Axe and I started thinking. From what I have read about Ms. Borden - the consensus seems to be that she was guilty and yet a jury found her not guilty. She lived out her life in Fall River, mostly shunned by society.

There is a case playing out locally - and I think nationally - right now. A father left his son in a car all day. The boy died. The father is in jail. The local papers (and the radio and CNN, which comes out of Atlanta) have all but convicted him and yet he doesn't go before a judge until Thursday. Should he ultimately be found not guilty (and I cannot presume to judge him when I know I am getting biased information), too many people have already convicted him.

Reminds me of the OJ Simpson case. It is being rehashed, people are convinced he did it. He lives out his life with that out there constantly.

Trial by jury has flaws. Other systems have more. Trial by news media seems worse.

A 12 year old has come up with an easy solution so you don't forget your child.

It's not me. Trust me - it's you.

There is something rewarding - and sad - about realizing that someone you have had trouble working with has problems with other people as well.

A friend told me that Uncle Oscar told her that WE (meaning friend and Oscar) have a "failure to communicate".

No, Oscar, you do not want to make decisions that you would be held accountable for, so you speak in obtuse phrases so that the other person is accountable and you are not. Man up and be the principal.

Or is that beyond you?

It takes a big man to give a hand to someone else.

There is a throw away line at the end of this article. “I’ve written a couple of my best songs ever,” he says, “and we had the most fun making the album. We had a guy build a bar in my studio, so that didn’t hurt anything.”

You wouldn't know, reading this, that the "guy" is more than a carpenter, would you?

The pie is not of a set size. If someone else get's a piece of it, that doesn't mean you get less.

Mr. Tanner Lyrics

written by Chapin, Harry F..

Mr. tanner was a cleaner from a town in the Midwest
And of all the cleaning shops around he'd made his the best
But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes
He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows
His friends and neighbors praised the voice
That poured out from his throat
They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole

His friends kept working on him to try music out full time
A big debut and rave reviews, a great career to climb
Finally they got to him, he would take the fling
A concert agent in New York agreed to have him sing
And there were plane tickets, phone calls, money spent to rent the hall
It took most of his savings but he gladly used them all

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole

The evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile
And in the half filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle
But the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause
He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws
But the critics were concise, it only took four lines
But no one could accuse them of being over kind

Mr. Martin Tanner, baritone of Dayton, Ohio
Made his town hall debut last night
Be came well prepared, but unfortunately his presentation
Was not up to contemporary professional standards
His voice lacks the range of tonal color
Necessary to make it consistently interesting

Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order

He came home to Dayton and was questioned by his friends
Then he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again
Excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed
He sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes
Music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy, it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
And he did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole

Six Word Saturday

Where did this STUFF come from?


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It is summer and I am trying to make sense of the paper I have not thrown away - in the next month, I hope to see miracles....

What did we miss?

If you hadn't died, would I think of you now?

You are forever frozen at 17. Your potential sitting on ice. What would you have been?

I know from the impact you made on a gawky, awkward 13 year old that you would have continued to touch people.

You would have been prime for the draft. Would that have changed you?

Or would you have been in college - headed where? Business. Education. Ministry. Politics.

Instead, you are forever frozen at 17. Struck down by a drunk driver. And lost to the rest of us.

Glen, you are still missed.

Six Word Saturday

Looking back: what did we miss?.


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