Vulnerabilty and Winds of Change

We had a windstorm a couple of weeks ago. It was very dramatic, the winds were predicted, but no one thought that a full blown 'inversion' would descend from Canada as rapidly as it did, and bring 55 - 60 MPH gusts that sustained and kept on for over three hours.

We watched small and large objects fly by the windows. And with trees all around the office of the November Coalition, and a 100-year old building, I wondered what would happen.

In the end, there was a lot of damage around town, and wild fires ranged in most directions, we were declared a disaster area. On November's grounds, all that was lost were things that weren't solid to start with. Down was the decorative wall we left when we took an old woodshed out when we moved in four years ago. The barnwood will be put back sturdily, on the same end of a new wood shed this autumn. It's okay to re-think something old, and use it if it's purposeful. But, it can't be stood up halfheartedly, because it 'looks good'.

We lost two trees that weren't sound -- one a maple tree that fell the day we took ownership. Lucky for us we'd moved a bakery rack outside, as it kept the tree from hitting the roof. We let the stump grow two branches. Vulnerable things, fall down in winds of change. But, we don't usually get this kind of wind storm.

And that day we surveyed our damage after the dramatic, unpredicted winds, I thought of our sentencing system. I'd been studying and writing about new thoughts I had on it -- when things began to fly by my windows.

There is more than one key place where the US Federal Sentencing system isn't on solid footing -- not scientifically, not morally, and not constitutionally.

With regard to winds of change, the vulnerable places could easily fall. The two tiers of federal sentencing, that no state will pursue in unique manner as the 'feds,' is like our two pronged maple tree, here. Because two disparate branches could grow out of the broken trunk -- does not mean it can stand -- for long. The taller they got, the more vulnerable they were. We are likely near that point in federal imprisonment and sentencing, and why these vulnerable areas should be studied by academics and grassroots advocates alike.

Good Sunday to all, and ponder with me and others -- the vulnerable places of law -- that a wind of change could bring down.