The law recognizes the concept of Death Bed Confessions, Battlefield Conversions and Dying Declarations as most likely true because imminent death is thought to encourage penitence. These ancient legal theories may be based on superstition. However, a great deal of human behavior and belief is. Regardless, the concept of moral versus immoral thoughts and action and when one should choose the harder right over the easier wrong is not just a legal issue. We humans, if we ever attain the ability to question what we should or should not do, usually rue our sins while we struggle with how or when we might expiate them. Then, of course, we have to summon up the courage to do so, or not. One of … [Read More...] about Is It Too Late?
Gavel Gamut
Recent Articles
Armored Adversaries
It is unlikely that armadillos ascribe to any mystic beliefs, but they definitely bring out the devil in those of us whose yards are decimated by their reptilian claws. Having shot fifteen of the ugly excuses for lawn ornaments, I immediately bonded with Oklahoma State University football coach Eric Morris who endured what he described as armadillos, “…[C]rushing my yard, my flower beds, digging everything up”. His solution was the same one I applied after trying live traps, bait, wolf urine and asking Peg to sit on our veranda with a metal bucket and a large spoon to scare them away. It was sort of like President Trump’s approach to foreign affairs. Cursing, threats and self-destructive … [Read More...] about Armored Adversaries
A Difficult Subject
The bedrock of America’s system of criminal law is Due Process with its inviolate premise that persons charged with crimes are presumed to be innocent until and unless proven in court to be guilty. Our United States Constitution and every state’s constitution provides these rights to each of us should we be charged by one of our governmental entities with any offense of a published, written and officially enacted violation. What does it say about the procedure and the presumption of innocence if the identity of the alleged victim is not revealed but the person charged with an offense is named publicly? We have no burden of any kind to prove our innocence or to even speak in our own defense. … [Read More...] about A Difficult Subject
While We Can
I had my funeral August 16, 2014. I loved it! I recommend you also consider having yours while you and your family and friends can laugh instead of cry. My parents had already passed before 2014 and I attended each of their funerals; they were sad. More importantly, the things I regretted not asking them or not saying to them were no longer possible. Another reason to hold your own wake is you can invite whom you want and see who really cares. At my “Fun-er-al” we played and sang songs and marched a “second line” around our barn while singing, “When the Saints Go Marching In”. We shared not only good memories but speculated on the new adventures we would have. I cannot, for fear of missing … [Read More...] about While We Can
Not Just Fleeting Things
Peg and I have planned a sojourn to the Grand Canyon for our anniversary. Actually, Peg asked me what I wanted to do, then she contacted the Park and got us a room for three days with a dinner reservation for August 25th, our anniversary. Once she had secured both room and board for us, she developed a scenic and meandering route to guide us; she included two motel reservations on the way out. As we may wend our way to Monument Valley and, as yet to be determined adventures on the way home, she will secure those accommodations before we leave the Canyon. You might ask what I helped do in the preparations. Well, I did not demur to anything Peg proposed. And, I have already procured a bottle … [Read More...] about Not Just Fleeting Things
A Trojan Horse; J’accuse!
Gentle Readers, you may recall that two weeks ago Peg and I went to see the film, The Odyssey. As always, we still have much to learn from the wisdom of those marvelous Greeks from about 2,500 years ago: The United States should not go to war for another country’s reasons-Helen may have run off with the Trojan, Paris, but Sparta was not attacked by Troy so the Greeks spent 10 years punishing an innocent civilization at great cost to both nations. Think Israel’s desire to have the United States destroy Iran in the modern day; and Never trust a Trojan Horse from a nation whose motivation is to advance its own desires using your own nation’s resources. Or, when it is our nation’s … [Read More...] about A Trojan Horse; J’accuse!
Lessons From Literature
Peg and I are going to see the movie The Odyssey tomorrow at the Circle Cinema in Tulsa. My thoughts about The Iliad and The Odyssey started with my memories from my high school English class. My sixteen-year-old life experience did not do Homer’s great classics justice. I enjoyed The Iliad more than The Odyssey, probably because I could more closely identify with the heroics of Achilles than with the convoluted motivations of Odysseus. Achilles was sometimes envious and petulant, but mainly he was an immortal warrior to whom the morality of the Trojan War was but a footnote. Whereas Odysseus (Ulysses in the later Roman telling) was not motivated by the betrayals of the Trojan Paris and the … [Read More...] about Lessons From Literature
Religion
If a columnist is arguing for religion to believers or against religion to skeptics, such a columnist need fear only boredom. Should a writer seek passionate reactions, however, advancing theism to atheists or atheism to acolytes are best bets for a column to end up lining the bottom of a trash can, after cries of heresy or ignorance are voiced. Oh sure, one could write about politics or sex and receive some interest from readers. But people already know their own positions on politics are gospel and they either cringe at or deny their prurient inner thoughts re procreation. Therefore, most columnists cautiously approach politics and skirt stories about immorality unless persons whom they … [Read More...] about Religion
Fireworks Forever
On the Fourth of July my wife Peg, and our son Jim, along with his wife Gina and our granddaughter Elyse spent the long daylight hours anticipating the nighttime fireworks extravaganzas to be exploded by generous patriotic citizens. I have been amazed since I was a boy at how much effort, time and money ordinary Americans expend to celebrate our Independence. Whereas we boys spent our lawn-mowing money on cherry bombs and Roman candles, municipalities and businesses light up the heavens with spectacular displays of bursting pyrotechnics. We younger celebrants might spend scant time ruminating on the glories of America’s military history, but we did join in by dueling with imaginative ways … [Read More...] about Fireworks Forever
Redemption
America was born from the hope for a world where every person was of equal worth. In 1776 we had already realized this ideal was not reality. Our Founders sought freedom of choice for themselves while being fully aware they had long denied such equality to countless others. But the dream, and the struggle for it, has always been equal rights for all. Our nation’s recognition that Indigenous Peoples, slaves, women, minors, minorities and the poor struggled without freedom in the Land of the Free, never extinguished our country’s core values upon which we were anchored. As all sinners, we have backslid and faltered on our 250-year crusade to enhance freedom and welfare for all. However, in … [Read More...] about Redemption
Chance Favors the Prepared
Roman soldiers cast lots, gambled, on which soldier would take Jesus’ tunic/robe (See John 19:22-29). The New Testament refers to this shameful activity to help portray the crucifixion as even more humiliating. Each of the Gospels mentions this story that helps set forth the evil of the event and how Jesus was demeaned. In other words, gambling is not an admired activity, at least when it comes to stealing the clothes of Jesus. Indiana University had no knowledge of Brendan Sorsby’s gambling addiction while he played quarterback for IU his red-shirt freshman year of 2022. The NCAA informed Indiana University after Sorsby’s illness came to light while he played at Texas Tech; he had also … [Read More...] about Chance Favors the Prepared
Books
Unanimous for Murder
Live on Amazon.com and Kindle eBooks!
Unanimous for Murder picks up where JUDGE LYNCH! left off. A gripping story of small town murder and judicial shenanigans on the western frontier when the western frontier was east of the Mississippi.
Echoes of Our Ancestors: The Secret Game
Jim’s new novel tells the exciting story of a long hidden but important football game that occurred between representatives of Haskell Indian Institute (now the Haskell Indian Nations University) and professionals from the then Kansas City Cowboys in 1924 at a secret location on the Osage Indian Nation near Pawhuska, Oklahoma - where Jim was born.
JUDGE LYNCH!
“Judge Lynch Holds Court!” That was the banner headline in a Posey County, Indiana newspaper after seven African American men were murdered by a white mob during October, 1878.
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Gavel Gamut Greetings from JPeg Ranch
“Gavel Gamut Greetings" is an anthology of topical and historical selections mainly about regional events and personalities that have appeared in my weekly newspaper column, Gavel Gamut.
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