My CMS The View from a New City

On October 30th I took the eleven-year-old scouts to see Judge Bruce Luebeck at his courtroom in South Jordan.  He showed us the courtroom and the holding cell where prisoners are kept while waiting for their case to be heard.  He explained that recidivism rates are very high.  He said that sixty percent of the defendants he places on probation fail to complete their term of probation without another offense.  My five scouts seemed to enjoy the visit.

When I was young I was anxious to excel. I remember thinking how great it would be if I could freeze the whole world for a period of time while I learned what I needed to get ahead, then unstop everything and demonstrate my amazing skill. Now that I am older–“old”– excelling doesn’t seem so important. Now I fret that everyone else isn’t progressing like they should. Maybe they were frozen for a time.

Have you noticed it? How often authorities elect to punish the entire population of innocent people to avoid doing a competent job of identifying the guilty. The security check at the airport is an example: every passenger must submit to the inconvenience and indignity of official groping and scanning to prevent the minuscule minority of terrorists from succeeding. I am frustrated every time I hear a policeman advise everyone in the population to prevent theft and burglary by making sure their houses and cars are always locked and their valuables kept out of sight; especially since, as a lawyer, I see first-hand what a poor job society does of handling the guilty once they are identified. I am aware of a large hospital chain that chose to avoid pursuing the small percentage of its patients who failed to pay their bills by allowing collection agents to grill every conscious incoming patient about their financial resources.

One of the many problems with this punish-the-innocent policy for preventing the guilty is the sheer inefficiency of it all. There must be better ways to achieve the desired result. Can’t we develop a smart bomb that will avoid all this collateral damage?

This all came to mind yesterday when I attempted to help Jeff and Vicky renew their state identification cards.  Jeff is my disabled son and Vicky is his more severely disabled wife.  At the counter, once their number had been called, Jeff presented his soon-to-expire state ID, his original birth certificate, and his original Social Security card and was granted a renewal. But Vicky over the years has misplaced her Social Security card, so she was only able to present her currently valid, picture, state Id, her original birth certificate, and an original document, issued by Social Security, that contained her name and Social Security number. Her renewal was denied because the only forms the bureaucrats at the drivers license division will accept to verify ones Social Security number are either an original Social Security card, a W2 or a 1099. Vicky will never be employed, so a W2 or a 1099 are out of the question. Vicky will now have to try to convince the workers at the Social Security office that she is who she says she is and get a new Social Security card before the drivers license division will grant her an ID. This catch 22 reminds me of a movie about Germany between the world wars called, “Der Hauptmann von Koepernick.” In Vicky’s case, their was no real question about her identity. But the bureaucrats and legislators who are bent on preventing any illegal alien from gaining a benefit they don’t deserve, have inflicted on every citizen the burden of preserving and presenting three specific, official forms of ID.

After two weeks of hard programing, today I finished the update of the program for Peterson and Nykamp Law. I will be installing it tomorrow and Monday. But the real event of the day was delivering Barry and Katherine Wade to the airport to begin their mission to Ghana. They were cheerful and enthusiastic in spite of all the Ebola panic that has been going around lately.

I had an extended dream last night that I was able to recall when I awoke. It seems Janet and I were somewhere in Asia in a small village. An attacking force overran the village and we were separated and I was taken captive. I remember feeling very bad that I didn’t get to say goodbye to Janet. I was treated well by my young captors. After they decided that I was unarmed and harmless they placed me in the custody of a young girl who tried to educate me in the world’s news and views from her perspective. Then I was rescued and returned to my wife and society. My initial reception by society was one of surprise and happiness. But society rejected my narrations as the product of brainwashing. They were sure that their culture was infinitely superior to the one from  which I had been freed and that my tale of the pleasant life lived by my captors could not possibly be true. Something like, “my mind’s made up, don’t bother me with the facts.” I wonder if this dream has anything to do with New York?

“Man is destined to be a God—and has to act as an independent being—and is left without aid to see what he will do, whether he will be for God, and practice him to depend on his own resources, and try his independency—to be righteous in the dark—to be the friend of God, and do the best I can when left to myself, act on my Agency as the independent Gods, and show our capacity.”

Office Journal of President Brigham Young, 28 January 1857, Library Archives, Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

William James

Suppose that the world’s author put the case to you before creation, saying: “I am going to make a world not certain to be saved, a world the perfection of which shall be conditional merely, the condition being that each several agent does its own ‘level best.’ I offer you the choice of taking part in such a world. Its safety, you see, is unwarranted. It is a real adventure, with real danger, yet it may win through. It is a social scheme of cooperative work genuinely to be done. Will you join the procession? Will you trust yourself and trust the other agents enough to face the risk?

16. Sterling M. McMurrin, “Some Distinguishing Characteristics of Mormon Philosophy,” Sunstone (March 1993, Volume 16:4, Issue 90), 41.

17. Ibid., 42.

18. Ibid., 42.

Dear President Corbitt and Jayne,

Knowing the demand on your time and attention that your current assignment makes, especially at the beginning, we have been very hesitant to bother you with news of our lives. But we thought you might enjoy a report on the events of the last three days. On Wednesday, Marlene and Murray Altman arrived from their condominium in Breckenridge, Colorado. We took them to the top of Hidden Peak on the Snowbird Tram, then fed them a home cooked meal and sat out on the deck and watched the sun go down until it was dark. On Thursday we went with them for a tour of the Humanitarian Center, Welfare Square, lunch at the Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Building, and a tour of Temple Square and the Conference Center, all conducted by Elder Richard Hinckley. He was wonderful and he and Murray Altman hit it off, talking business man to business man. John Taylor joined us for lunch and we told him how grateful we are to have gotten to know you. In the afternoon Janet and I took the Altmans to the Ogden Temple open house then to dinner at the Grand America. Needless to say they were exhausted when we put them to bed. This morning they had breakfast and headed back to Colorado. We think the visit went wonderfully. Marlene said she already has had several e-mail enquiries from other AJC members asking for a report of her visit. We are confident the report will be a favorable one.

We know you are doing famously in your new calling. We won’t require a report until you are finished. The Lord bless you.

Your friends,

Larry and Janet

The Oregon Petersons, Anna, Andrew, Emily, and Isabella, are visiting.  Brent, the three grandkids and I went fishing at East Canyon Reservoir today.  Andrew, Emily, and Isabella each caught the first fish of their lives at the end of a long day of diligent fishing.  As we drove home we discussed the need for perserverence in every successful project.