Sleepless in Austin

NBC Anchor Brian Williams ask Texas Governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry what should have been an uncomfortable question during one of the GOP debates: While signing any of the 234 death warrants during his terms as Governor, had Perry ever worried that he’d sent an innocent man to an unjust execution?

Perry’s response was no, he had yet to lose sleep over having signed any death warrant. Because of the built-in safeguards, Perry said he was sure anyone executed in Texas under his watch deserved what they got.

That would include Cameron Todd Willingham, a Corsicana, Texas native who was convicted of murder after a house fire he was accused of setting on December 23, 1991 resulted in the death of his three daughters, two-year old Amber Louise and one-year old twins Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie.

Arson was suspected by investigators who found what they took to be pour patterns formed by a liquid accelerant. There were also signs that the fire had burned hottest near the floor as well as signs that the fire burned quickly and very hot, and that it had multiple points of origin, much the way one would have behaved if there had been an accelerant involved.

Willingham was offered a plea deal before the trial; plead guilty and he would get a life sentence. Otherwise he would face the death penalty. But he turned down the offer and insisted he was innocent of the charges.

The trial that placed Willingham on death row had all the earmarks of trials that make the use of the death penalty so questionable. It was over in two days. Willingham was defended by court-appointed attorneys who lacked the wherewithal to question the evidence against him. In his defense, his attorneys called one witness, and within one hour of having started deliberation, the jury came back with a conviction, and as he was promised, Willingham was given a death sentence in Aug. of 1992.

Those appeals meant to insure that this death penalty was just did nothing to overturn this conviction. It wasn’t until weeks before he was scheduled to be put to death in 2004 that Willingham finally had any hope at all. Dr. Gerald Hurst, a renowned fire investigator, looked into the evidence used to convict him.

Dr. Hurst suggested the prosecution witnesses’ conclusion that the fire was deliberately set was based on old wives tales. What these expert witnesses took to be signs of arson were rather indicators of flashover. This occurs when a fire starts in a house and smoke banks down from the ceiling, quickly spreading heat and flammable gases and fire throughout the house, giving all the indicators of a fire started by an accelerant if misread. There was no real evidence, Dr. Hurst concluded, to indicate that this was an arson fire.

The report Dr. Hurst prepared was sent to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole and to Gov. Perry. If failed to sway either of them. With evidence in hand that should have halted the execution, the Gov. signed the death warrant and on February 17, 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was put to death still maintaining his innocence.

The New Yorker published a story about Willingham’s execution in its September 8, 2009 issue called Trial by Fire, available online at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann.

Reunion at Valhalla

Facebook seems to have caught on big here in the New Millennium. Of course, with me, it caught on more slowly than with most folks. But that may be because I am a bit slow at times. (At times? Hah!) Okay, truth is I signed up, but for years never really went near it. In fact, the only reason I signed up at all was to humor an old Army buddy who found a page on it dedicated to our old post in Germany.

Once I either caught on to what Facebook was all about, or I finally got enough friends who would acknowledge me, I began to enjoy the whole social networking thing. I began to post some pictures and enjoyed that so much, I posted a couple of albums of old pictures of my family.

That went so well I started my own group called Feds Creek High School Yearbooks. I actually proposed eventually uploading every annual my alma mater, Feds Creek High School, ever put out. I think I am up to 1985, provided I haven’t missed any earlier yearbooks. That only leaves the 15 remaining annuals from 1985-2001, the school’s last year as a high school.

Sooner or later, I anticipate achieving that goal, and I may have another group from Facebook to thank for it. That group would be “You Went to Feds Creek High School if You Remember…”. I hope I can get someone to loan me those yearbooks I lack by posting a request on this group’s page. And if this doesn’t work, well, let’s say I’ve tried my best.

Like Feds Creek High School Yearbooks, this is an open group and anyone may become a member. Those most likely to join would be those who were Vikings at one time in their life, or so we would presume. What you will mainly find on this page are one-time students reliving their high school days. This includes reminiscing about classmates or favorite teachers and encompasses pretty much every class that ever graduated from that school.

But there are other things going on with this group, including a reunion for anyone who ever went to Feds Creek at any time, or even one of its feeder schools, Jackson Rowe and Grapevine. This reunion is scheduled to take place at the Breaks Interstate Park on October 1, or less than 2 weeks from now. The group has reserved shelter number three, the Lakeside Shelter, the one above the swimming pool. That shelter will be available from 10 am until whenever, probably around 5 or 6 pm.

The driving force behind the reunion at this has been Emma Price, who has done the bulk of the planning and even paid for the use of the shelter. To get an idea of what’s going on, if you are planning on attending, you should probably go to Facebook and enter the group’s name in the search box on Facebook, and read some of the posts. There are some that ask you if you will be there, and how many will be coming with you.

At any rate, the hope is to get as many alumni of Feds Creek and their families at the Breaks as we can to relive our glory days. Hope to see a lot of you there.

Why speech should be free

Put two people together long enough and you’ll get a disagreement.  Keep them together a bit longer and you’ll get a major disagreement.  Extend that forced cohabitation for too long and you’ll get opposing political parties.

Most people can, however, learn to live with the idea that not everyone is going to agree with everything they say.  But there are exceptions to this rule.  For instance, on the facebook, I’ve noticed some people cannot pass by posts that contain statements contrary to their core beliefs without a negative comment.  (And I’ve been guilty of this offense myself.)    It’s as though these people have set themselves up as arbiters of what’s acceptable and what isn’t. 

You can react to this in one of two ways.  You can reply to your detractor and in all likelihood get a long and pointless argument started, or you can use a handy little device facebook has installed for the original poster and that is an x that will magically appear to the side of each comment.  Click on that x and that comment will be deleted.

Oh, don’t worry.  It’s not like you’re suppressing the right to free speech.  Those who have other thoughts on any matter can always post whatever they want to on their facebook page.

In real life, dissent is not always welcomed, either.  Those who have the power to do so will often attempt to stifle viewpoints not totally in line with what they consider acceptable.   But suppression of the free exchange of ideas can sometimes be a costly mistake. 

In the former Soviet Union, dissent was not only unwelcomed; it usually carried a prison sentence. But can you imagine how different the Chernobyl area might be today if someone had had to defend the decision to put an uncontained nuclear reactor in one of the few places in that country that had arable farmland?

And in an article that appeared on MSN’s web site in the week leading up to the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the writer put the cost of the Iraq war in the trillions of dollars.  There were those who spoke out against the then-impending war, but who, like the Dixie Chicks, were browbeaten into silence.

In our area, anyone who opposes mountaintop removal (MTR) as a method for extracting coal knows what it’s like to have their right to free speech threatened.  One of the more blatant attempts at bullying opponents of MTR into silence is the bumper sticker that suggests one way to protect the coal industry is by shooting “tree huggers”.

Using the term “tree huggers” is one way to dehumanize those who see MTR as a destructive and harmful practice.  Other ways include the terms “radical environmentalists, outside agitators”, etc. to describe local residents.

 Then there are those who aren’t above physically threatening or attacking opponents of MTR.  An extreme example of this can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjc7Jg_gMy0.

There is a price to be paid when MTR is allowed to go unchecked.  The topography of our area is such that without the protection afforded by the trees on the hillsides, excess rain can quickly turn creeks into raging rivers.

 Anyone who saw Harless Creek after that flood of 2010 cannot deny the truth of this:  Silence can be deadly at times.

Seasonally Affected Disorders

Labor Day has come and gone and with it, the unofficial end of summer. Of course if you go by the calendar, summer still has about three weeks left, but that’ll be gone before you know it, so we might as well get ready to bid summer a tearful adieu.

Fall is, for the most part, a pretty miserable time of year. Yeah, September and part of October isn’t too bad, but by the time mid to late fall rolls around, this season is shot. The days keep getting shorter and shorter as the season progresses, and we are soon bogged down in November gray.

Okay, if everything goes right in early and middle fall, the deciduous forests really put on a show. The red of the maples and the golden yellows of the oaks, for example, can really dress up the place.

But that’s not guaranteed. For instance, if the season is too dry, the leaves will just turn brown. Too much rain will foul everything up, too, in its own way. There is a happy middle ground, but these conditions are very rarely present. Still, we can always hope for what we seldom ever get; a chance to take some nice pictures as the leaves turn color, before they fall off and need raking.

The changing of the seasons means more in the mountains than they do in other places. Depending on where your house is located, the beginning of fall means you are either entering a prolonged period in the shadows, or you are envied and probably hated because you’ll be getting some much desired sunshine.

Because the sun begins to set further to the south starting on September 23^rd, it will shine back to the north. If your house in on the north side, congratulations, you’ll be in the sun, while your neighbors across the holler from you, those unfortunate souls on the south side, will be in the shade.

This doesn’t mean too much in the beginning, but by late fall and early winter when the snows begin to fall and the temperatures begin to drop, that’s when you can really begin to dislike your neighbors who are sitting so smugly on their north side property.

Once the sun does come back out after a cold snap, the poor south sider will still have to contend with all that snow and ice because his property is sitting in the shadows. And he has to sit and watch those north siders basking in the warmth of a sun that is obviously prejudiced. Why else would you have to wait till spring to thaw out?

There is a middle ground here, too. For instance, your house might sit facing east or west instead of on the north or south side of the holler. For those whose houses sit facing the east, you will get sunshine in the morning and shade in the afternoon. If your house sits facing the west, reverse that.

My own house faces the west, so I am not too unhappy. It’s not like I’m on the south side with no sun, but not getting the sun until the afternoon is pretty depressing in itself. Not as depressing as having to sit in the shade all afternoon, though, like those poor souls whose houses face the east.