Sunday, Hearing Tuesday

Well, Susan woke me up at 9:00 A.M. this morning. It wasn't her fault that I stayed up until 2:00 A.M. on the computer. The wake-up call got me out of bed in time for ten o'clock church at the Church of the Ascension on Sligo Avenue. Good thing it's only ten blocks away and no lights.

Susan is in a panic. She is of the impression that her Uncle has not gotten the family's motions into the judge. She wants me to call him? Me? Why not her? Well, because she can't leave messages on his cell phone the way the prison telephone system works. You would think there would be some human operator required to intervene when an answering machine message clearly says that it will accept all incoming calls. Oh well.

Karin, who is as close to all of this as I am and takes care of Susan's house and her two dachshunds, says that Ted filed two motions: One, to get her out of incarceration, entirely; and another to allow for her being medicated and monitored in a medical community near where she lives.

After church I went to the Takoma Park Farmers' Market. I found a park bench. I may as well be sitting outside as at home with my injuries. A gathering of people showed up discussing how the police department made a mistake on a report. They were chasing some people who had car-jacked a SUV, the SUV took out this lady's fence, but because the police wrote down a non-existent address on their report, she is not able to get insurance to fix it. As she wandered off, one of her lady friends allowed to me as to how much energy this woman had for all kinds of activist causes.

"Oh, well, I could use her," I replied and sketched out Susan's predicament.

"Oh, yes, I remember her," she replied, "They got her on treason."

How interesting. Those of us who read the indictment know that treason was not the charge. Nevertheless, by insinuating treason and espionage, the people in government empowered to prosecute managed to position her in a way that scares the bejesus out of liberals. Mother Susan, at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, was just as quick to distance herself. The ability of politicians to sever a citizen from their rights and due process just through innuendo and indictment, to so ruin someone's life over such a long period of time... well, it is exactly why the founding fathers thought up the idea of having a new country.

I venture to say we are less and less the "land of the free" because we are less and less the "land of the brave." We think bravery is sending soldiers to Afghanastan or Iraq, and dropping bombs on foreign cities from 60,000 feet. From super power to third-rate in one generation.