Fear

I want to think my friend, Steve, for recommending me for a carpentry job to one of his friends. Not  because I got the job, but it gave me something to think about while I was doing some tedious painting.

This fellow wanted me to install a new exterior door from his porch to his kitchen. The existing door was in good shape, but it was one of those doors that has a glass insert panel on the top half. He was concerned that someone could break the glass, reach in and unlock the single cylinder dead bolt, and thus break into the house. He wanted me to install a solid door without a window. The kitchen was pretty shaded and dark, and the solid door would have made it even darker, but, to me, the darkness that permeated the house was not from the lack of windows.

His was the personal darkness of fear that made him willing to shut out the light. He had lived in that same house with the same door for over 30 years, but suddenly he was fearful of a break-in. It's not a bad neighborhood, middle-class, not wealthy, but not Detroit or Chicago. I looked for some statistics on home break-ins and found a Bureau of Justice Statistics report from 2003 to 2007. Here's the link: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/vdhb.txt. It turns out that the number of break-ins seems quite high; about 3.7 million/year, or one for every 33 households. But, 65% of those break-ins are committed by intruders known to the homeowners. About 7% (259,000) of break-ins result in assaults, but only about 90,000 of these assaults are by strangers. That makes the risk of being assaulted by a stranger in your own home about 1 in 3000. In all of the break-ins, there are only 430 homicides per year, so the risk of being killed in your own home during a break-in is about 1 in 700,000. According to the report, these risks diminish some what if you are white, married, and live in a single family home. And, I assume, that the part of the country you live in, your economic status, and other variables can increase or decrease your risk, but the report does not differentiate.

I won't call the man's fear irrational, after all, there is a small but real risk of being assaulted or even killed in you own home. But, you are 15 times more likely to die by falling in your own home, 10 times more likely to accidentally poison yourself, 7 times more likely to die in a home fire, twice as likely to die by choking to death, and almost twice as likely to die by drowning. There's even a higher risk of being shot and killed by a law enforcement officer.

This man's fear is an anecdotal example of our societal belief that danger seems to lurk at every corner. We are constantly reminded by the media that murder and mayhem exists. We are told by the NRA that we need guns to protect our homes. We are told by our Republican candidate for president that immigrants and and minorities are taking our jobs, cheating us of our tax dollars, spreading terrorism, and even threatening our religions. Some of our preachers allege that Christianity is under assault and that God will punish us for allowing abortions, or for tolerating LGBT people.

I'll admit that I'm cautiously fearful of certain things. I'm very fearful of some big picture items such as climate change or threats to our democracy, that might effect my child or grandchild, or our country, or even the world. I would bolt the door to protect future generations.

But here's the thing: I know that I, like everyone else is going to die, hopefully not tomorrow or next week, but someday. But until then, I am going to choose to live in the light.

Tape this to your refrigerator and check off the blocks.

I suspect Antonin Scalia was a decent man whose ideology prevented him from seeing the forest for the trees. I sorry for his death, but glad he's gone from the court.

So, whats going to happen now? Within hours of Scalia's death, Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate would not confirm a new justice under the current president, even though that will throw our legal system into chaos for at least a year. Here's how it will play out.

1. President Obama will know that picking a liberal will poke a stick in the Republican eye. He may try it once, just to win some political points.

2. He will soft ball over the plate a moderate middle of the road judge with good credentials but without a big track record.

3. The Republican political assassination team will immediately knock the nominee right out of the park with a combination of, character assassination, innuendo, right wing punditry, litmus tests, religious views, accusations of left handedness,  or anything else that will postpone an actual vote.

4. Under constant personal assault, the nominee will likely decline or withdraw his nomination before a vote can be cast.

5. Wash rinse and repeat, probably three of four times.

6. Even though the American public will, by this time be clambering for resolution, by selecting, a balanced nominee, and if he actually receives a vote in the Senate, he will lose. King Solomon could not be confirmed under the current conditions in the Senate, with the current President. It won't even be close. Adding to the slim majority the lockstep Republicans hold in the Senate there will be a number of Democratic Senators in swing states that will not risk their political future on a reasonable appointment.

Mitch McConnell as well as a number of Senators and congressmen have, over and over again, shown themselves to be traitors to the American Constitution, and the American public. This will be just one more in a long line of seditious acts.

Mitch McConnell

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

"Today our country lost an unwavering champion of a timeless document that unites each of us as Americans.

"Justice Scalia's fidelity to the Constitution was rivaled only by the love of his family: his wife Maureen his nine children, and his many grandchildren. Through the sheer force of his intellect and his legendary wit, this giant of American jurisprudence almost singlehandedly revived an approach to constitutional interpretation that prioritized the text and original meaning‎ of the Constitution.

"Elaine and I send our deepest condolences to the entire Scalia family.

"The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”