Monday, November 30, 2009

Tiger, Maurice Cleamons, and Health Care Again

Alright so first off, let's start with Tiger Woods. If you've been living under a rock you may not have heard that Tiger has gotten himself into a sticky situation. What is the deal Tiger? I mean you are suppose to be squeaky clean, the ultimate picture of togetherness. Well Tiger I have no idea what happened at your house the other night. Assuming everyone is OK, physically, I don't really care. But I will say, you don't have to be perfect, not on our account. We are all screwed up too.

Also if you haven't read about it, a man named Maurice Cleamons is alleged to have shot and killed four police officers in Parkland, WA, not far from Seattle. An interesting tid-bit in this story is that Cleamons is originally from Arkansas and while serving a 95 years in prison, his sentence was commuted by then Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee had legitimate reasons for offering Cleamons and early release. Cleamons was 17 when he was sentenced and was not in prison for murder, rather a mixture of charges including burglary and bringing a gun to school.

And now I worry that people will claim that the problem is early release. Of course we never see the stories of former prisoners that are able to become productive members of society after receiving a second chance. I would argue that the problem was not the Governor releasing Cleamons. As I said before he had legitimate reasons. After his release Cleamons committed a host of crimes that could have kept him locked up but both Arkansas and Washington officials failed to do so. So does this mean that the that Sara Kruzan, a young woman serving life without parole in California for killing her abusive pimp, should not be considered for an early release? There are thousands of prisoners across the United States that would turn their lives around, given an opportunity. We can't allow people like Maurice Cleamons serve as examples to dissuade officials from releasing deserving prisoners early, especially when the justice system had several opportunities to keep him locked up before the killing of the four officers.

Finally, they are debating Health Care in the Senate. I currently do not have health care and could possibly receive coverage as a result of pending legislation. Will I be so lucky? You're guess is as good as mine. Does anyone have any idea of what is going to happen in the Senate? I certainly have no idea.

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