• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

James M. Redwine

  • Books
  • Columns
  • 1878 Lynchings/Pogrom
  • Events
  • About

Book of Matthew

The Ides of April

April 12, 2024 by Peg Leave a Comment

Julius Caesar was assassinated by his fellow Romans on March 15, 44 B.C. Brutus and his co-conspirators used numerous stab wounds for the job. Our government is using the unrelenting Chinese torture of taxes: drip, drip, drip until our Body Politic is exsanguinated.

At least Jules did not have to inflict his own wounds. Our governments, federal, state and county, require us to report upon ourselves and furnish our public “servants” with the means of ruining our lives if we do not.

It is not like any of us does not realize we have an obligation to contribute to public services. I like driving on paved roads and drinking clean water. What turns our gratitude for our collective governments’ provision of benefits to resentment is our total loss of control over how our hard-earned income becomes lucre. Then it is wasted and mismanaged or, worst of all, given to people our government favors so they can use it to abuse people we do not know.

If our government would use our tax money on services for us, most of us would accept those decisions as necessary even if we might make different choices as to how our money is spent. Most Americans champion democracy and democracy means we each do not always get our way. We get it.

However, it is concerning that our country’s Gross Domestic Product for 2023 was over 27 trillion dollars; federal tax collections were over 4 trillion dollars; state tax collections were nearly 4 trillion dollars and local tax revenues were almost 2 trillion. Yet our federal yearly budget deficit from 2022 to 2023 ballooned up by $320 billion to $1.7 trillion. And our total national debt is currently $34 trillion. I think Peg and I could probably manage to balance our budget with $27 trillion, or maybe only a mere billion or so.

How can our trillions of dollars of hard work result in even more exorbitant debt? It is like we all, ♪ owe our souls to the Company Store ♪ and our government runs the Store. What happened to our capitalistic system? The governmental workers we have hired at exorbitant rates to manage our money are like socialists on methamphetamine. As Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher said about the soft-hearted and soft-headed British socialists, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”, in this case, OURS!

When our government graciously gives the money we have earned to people less fortunate, most of us clamp our teeth and bear it. However, when our “public servants” squander our resources to enable other countries to kill people with whom we have no quarrel, we take umbrage.

We are a generous nation, but we object to being complicit in destroying innocents, especially children. Also, even if we are better off than some, we have plenty of our own needs that should be addressed. Charity should at least begin at home.

Anyway, Gentle Reader, just as you, these dark thoughts reappear every year at this time. So, I guess the Pollyanna approach is the only rational option when our government has a stranglehold on all our other options. Maybe Peg and I should listen to the guidance set forth in Matthew, Chapter 5, verse 40 and voluntarily send in more money:

“[I]f any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well.”

On the other hand, even the Book of Matthew may be conflicted by our government’s voracious appetite for our tax money, because only two chapters later we are warned:

“Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot
and turn to attack you
….
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.”

Matthew, Ch.7, vs. 6, 15 and 16. 

Of course, our governmental “servants” would not be amused if we sent in a check in the amount we believe they should receive. People such as Henry David Thoreau might be courageous enough to go to jail for his non-tax beliefs, but even Jesus advised:

“Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due,
Revenue to whom revenue is due ….”
Book of Romans, Ch. 13, vs. 7.

My conclusion is that even Jesus saw no hope for relief from paying taxes and our government wasting them. Ok, I give, the check’s in the mail.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Filed Under: America, Democracy, Events, Gavel Gamut, United States Tagged With: Book of Matthew, Book of Romans, Brutus, Chinese torture, Gentle Reader, James M. Redwine, Jesus, Jim Redwine, Julius Caesar, Margaret Thatcher, stab wounds, taxes, the check is in the mail

The Wheat From The Chaff

April 23, 2021 by Peg Leave a Comment

 

The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been Committed ….”

Our Declaration of Independence raised these issues and complained of King George III:

“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by Jury; (and) For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.”

The Book of Matthew uses the example of separating edible wheat from its husks as an analogy about dividing the good from the bad. In our legal system we almost always assign this task to judges with probably less than 3% of criminal cases being determined by a jury. The recent case involving the death of George Floyd, Jr. and the conviction of Derek Chauvin is one of those extremely rare jury events. However, this is not a column about that media saturated matter that took place in Hennepin County, Minnesota. I do predict that two of the issues raised by Chauvin when he appeals the guilty verdicts will be whether trial judge Peter Cahill should have granted Chauvin’s motions to change the venue of the trial and to sequester the jury. Those specific assigned errors will fall to the Minnesota state appellate judges and maybe work their way over to the federal judiciary before the saga crawls to an unsatisfactory halt. Shakespeare was right about the Law’s Delay. George Floyd, Jr’s. death was May 25, 2020.

What this week’s column is about is the American legal system’s mental gymnastics involving the relative imbalance between trial judges’ assumed ability to be objective versus that of jurors. Perhaps a few specific examples might help define the dichotomy. During my forty years as a trial judge in a small, rural county with only two judges I was faced countless times with having to process cases about which I had personal knowledge. For example, a crime might be reported then the police or sheriff’s department would present me with a sworn affidavit in support of a request to arrest someone and/or to search their home. A great amount of detail about the alleged crime and the suspect would be laid out before me. Then later I would sit as judge on the case.

Another fairly frequent circumstance might be I would know both the named victim and the defendant. I would sit on the case. In fact, I have remained as the deciding judge on countless cases at the request of victims, defendants and their legal representatives because they all wanted the cases resolved without delay and excessive cost and because everyone, including me, assumed I could separate the wheat from the chaff and both follow the law and be fair and objective. If I could do so, so can jurors. Black robes are a symbol not an inoculation against biased decision making. Facts are what matter, not irrelevancies unconnected to the case at hand.

There are cases where judges should not serve and where the pool from which jurors are selected should be changed. But usually judges and other people have the ability to take on the sacred mantle of administering justice whether they wear a black robe or not. Our legal system should afford to the citizenry that pays for it the same respect we assume for judges who are paid by it.

The delay, expense and great inconvenience caused by changes of venue and juror sequestration should be a last resort. This was true when we gained our independence and communication was untimely via printing presses and quill pens. How much rarer should such dire remedies be when finding a venue and jurors who have no knowledge of a case would require a trial beyond Mars?

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Filed Under: America, Gavel Gamut, Judicial Tagged With: Book of Matthew, chaff, change of venue, Declaration of Independence, Derek Chauvin, George Floyd Jr., Hennepin County, James M. Redwine, Jim Redwine, King George III, Minnesota, sequester the jury, Sixth Amendment to U.S. Constitution, the Law's delay, wheat

© 2025 James M. Redwine

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d