Blackstone: Don't Be A Bonehead Legislator

I recently finished William Blackstone's meaty tome Commentaries on the Laws of England: Vol. 1.  Written in 1763, it is considered one of the first popular books written on the subject of English law.  Previous works on the subject were found in obscure and hardly understandable texts from centuries previous.

Blackstone had a brilliant mind and a strong determination to argue for the supremacy of the English system of laws, especially when compared to those of continental Europe of the time.

One of the interesting insights Blackstone shares is the proper role that Legislators play and the proper preparation they should take in administering their work:

"But those on whom nature and fortune have bestowed more abilities and greater leisure, cannot be so easily excused.  These advantages are given them, not for the benefit of themselves only, but also of the public; and yet they cannot, in any scene of life, discharge properly their duty either to the public or themselves, without some degree of knowledge in the laws."  

Keep in mind that not everyone in politics lives a life of leisure.  A flexible schedule and a means of subsistence are required to fulfill the duties of office. These prerequisites qualify many aged yet a few young, like myself, to run for office.  However, I will concede that political life is much easier for the seasoned and affluent than it is for those raising young families.  This was especially so in Colonial Era England. Nevertheless, Blackstone points out, regardless of circumstances, the need for legislators to know about the law.  Blackstone continues:

"But in order to attain these desirable ends, it is necessary that the magistrate should understand his business; and have not only the will, but the power also of administering legal and effectual justice.  Else, when he has mistaken his authority, through passion, through ignorance, or absurdity, he will be the object of contempt from his inferiors, and of censure from those to whom he is accountable for his conduct." 

Indeed, I have seen legislators replaced because those to whom the legislator was accountable questioned the passion or ignorance of the legislator's efforts.  This must have been a more frequent occurrence in Blackstone's day.  Utah has 104 members of it's Legislature (both Chambers) with a population of 2.8 million people.  By comparison, in Blackstone's day, Great Britain had 558 members for a population of 6.5 million.  

Blackstone has this to say about the weighty responsibility of the legislator:

"Yet further, most gentlemen of considerable property, at some period or other in their lives, are ambitious of representing their country in parliament; and those, who are ambitious of receiving so high a trust would also do well to remember it's nature and importance.  They are not thus honourably distinguished from the rest of their fellow subjects, merely that they may privilege their persons, their estates, or their domestics; that they may list under party banners; may grant or withhold supplies; may vote with or vote against a popular or unpopular administration; but upon considerations far more interesting and important.  They are the guardians of the English constitution, the makers, repealers, and interpreters of the English laws; delegated to watch, to check, and to avert every dangerous innovation; to propose, to adopt, and to cherish any solid and well-wighed improvement, bound by every tie of nature, of honour, and of religion, to transmit that constitution and those laws to their posterity, amended if possible, at least without any derogation.  And how unbecoming must it appear in a member of the legislature to vote for a new law, who is utterly ignorant of all the old!  What kind of interpretation can he be enabled to give, who is a stranger to the text upon which he comments!"

Finally, he quips about how the law has endured under the stewardship of legislators:

"The common law of England has fared like other venerable edifices of antiquity, which rash and inexperienced workmen have ventured to new-dress and refine, with all the rage of modern improvement.  Hence, frequently it's symmetry has been destroyed, its proportion distorted, and it's majestic simplicity exchanged for specious embellishments and fantastic novelties."   

In every freshmen class of legislators there is always one or two who feel it is there call in life to make sweeping changes in one aspect of the law or another.  Fortunately, in Utah, unless backed my popular sentiment, most of these aspirations are moderated by the experience and prudent minds of seasoned legislators.

Nevertheless, Blackstone makes some excellent points on being competent in legislative work.  I have done my best to acquaint myself with the many and varied departments of government, their impact on the lives of our citizens, and the policies that will best affect the happiness of people in my district.  While my knowledge isn't yet perfect, it is improving steadily; and for that, I am grateful.  May our current legislators and future legislators be perpetually engaged in preparing their minds to do the people's work.    

Heaven and Earth: Rededicating Ogden's Historic 4th Ward Chapel

When we build, let us think that we build forever.

Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone.

Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for;

and let us think, as we lay stone on stone,

that a time is to come when those stones will be held

sacred because our hands have touched them,

and that men will say, as they look upon

the labor and wrought substance of them,

“See! This our father did for us.”

—John Ruskin

For the past two years, our chapel has been under renovation.  Finally, the seismic upgrades and restoration work is complete and we prepare to rededicate the building.

The chapel was originally dedicated in 1937.  It took 8 years and nearly $1 Million of member donations to complete the structure.  I was fortunate enough to gain access to a copy of the original dedication booklet.  David O. McKay lived in our ward for a time and he shares a message in the booklet.

Ogden LDS 4th Ward Chapel Dedication - October 1937 Booklet by Jeremy Peterson

The original 4th Ward building was on the 21st block of Madison Ave.  However, it was too small for the growing ward.  The building was razed and the bricks from that building were used to form the inner layers of brick for the newer chapel.  In the safe under the entry stairs, we found this stone dating to 1888.

The work in the chapel has involved extensive historic paint restoration work.

It has also involved rework to the lighting, HVAC, seismic safety upgrades and more. 

In my capacity as a high counsilman for our Stake, I offered the Salt Lake Tribune some time to walk through the building to help promote awareness of the rededication.  Tom Wharton does an excellent job in his story:

Historic Ogden Mormon Church Re-Opens After Two-Year Restoration 

Our building is unique in many aspects.  One of the most unique features is the Tower Room.  At one time, it served as a place to conduct some portions of sacred temple ceremonies prior to the building of the Ogden temple.  

OPEN HOUSE:  Saturday, September 7th  3:00pm - 6:00pm

REDEDICATION:  Sunday, September 8th 6:00pm

If you miss either of these events, you are welcome to come any Sunday and sit with our family.  I am sure you will find the spirit of our Sunday services refreshing and edifying.

POISON PILL: Common Core's Pornography Push?

I recently received an email from activists concerned about Utah's implementation of Common Core standards in our public schools.  In the email, there was a claim that the recommended reading list for high school students included offensive and "pornographic" material.

This seemed like a serious allegation so I decided to check it out.  What I found shocked me.  While the material turns out not to be "recommended" by the state of Utah it does appear in the Appendices of USOE's Core Standards for English Language Arts as an example of material that complies with Common Core standards.

Here is an excerpt from the Utah State Office of Education PDF outlining example reading materials for our students.  I have excerpted the front page and page 145 from the appendix linked above:

Common Core Book Recommended Reading - Bluest Eye

The book in question is written by Toni Morrison, an honored African-American author, called The Bluest Eye,

It turns out that national Common Core standards include this book for its "complex" language style.   Shockingly, what high school students get instead is a graphic experience of incest, rape, and child molestation from the first-person perspective of the perpetrator!

I could barely get through the excerpts.  They are highly disturbing and will ruin your day so feel free to trust me and move on.  If you feel compelled to read them, they have been distilled from the book by the Politichicks blog:   

EXCERPTS FROM THE BLUEST EYE

***WARNING:  EXTREMELY GRAPHIC LANGUAGE***  

So if this isn't on Utah's official "recommended" list, why is this even an issue to bring up?  The concern arises because some Utah School teachers are bypassing the State recommend lists and instead using the national text example list (see page 152) to flesh out their curriculum.  Why would they do this?  Because the Common Core standardized tests are correlated to the national Common Core standards and recommendations not necessarily the State's recommendations.

Hence, the 15% variation that Common Core affords the States in their standards does not necessarily mean that the States' variances will show up on the standardized tests.  I am speculating, but this might explain why the variances permitted were so small.  Nevertheless, the appearance of poisonous material on the example literature list shows negligence on the part of national Common Core staffers or worse.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but this example illustrates the risks of depending on an unaccountable interstate entity to do our bidding.  The alarm has been rung and our senses are now heightened.  In the quest for efficiency and academic homogeneity, we need to be careful of what we wish for.  Caveat Emptor.

Update 9/13/13:  Today yet another book on the USOE and Consortium list of exemplar texts surfaces.  People must finally be reading through these books.  Today's sultry title is Dreaming In Cuban which happens to immediately follow The Bluest Eyes in the table of contents of USOE's example texts.  In this book, the kids get exposure to rough sex.  You can read the lurid excerpts here:

EXCERPTS FROM DREAMING IN CUBAN 

TOLERANCE: Ogden's Legacy As A Mixed Community

Ogden's history is one of the most colorful of any city in the state.  Looking back through time, even to its most primitive settlement, it has maintained an interesting dichotomy of dueling community interests.

While Ogden in its heyday was a rowdy railroad town full of vice and merriment, it also boasted as many churches as it had saloons.  Perhaps both were used just on different days of the week, or perhaps that reflected a deeply religious community co-existing with its non-religious friends and neighbors.

For Pioneer Day, we visited the Pioneer Museum at 21st St. and Lincoln Ave. in Ogden and discovered a little about the men who made Ogden habitable and set the tone for what it has become.

The first personality to make its appearance is that of Miles Goodyear.  Miles came to the Ogden area in the late 1830s.  He was a fur trapper and mountain man.  He married a Ute chief's daughter and had two children.

 This log cabin, built in 1841, was the first home built by anyone of European decent in Weber County.

Miles Goodyear ultimately persuaded Mormon settlers to purchase his land and he moved to California where he died shortly thereafter.  

The second personality to arise in Ogden history is that of Lorin Farr.  Perhaps his legacy is better known due to his ample posterity in the area.  Lorin was a Mormon settler from Nauvoo, Illinois and became a giant in the community.  He was responsible for laying the city plat and organizing the early settlement.  

Interestingly, many of the early settlers to Ogden were Scotch-Irish.  Even though they were Mormon settlers, this heritage came with a strong culture of family honor and with that came confrontation. So, some of Ogden's earliest stories are of brawls between early Mormon settlers as they resolved personal differences with one another.

Perhaps this scrappy nature dovetailed to a degree with he railroad work crews that arrived in 1869 and launched Ogden to the forefront as a major participant in the national economy.  Regardless, when the non-religious crowds from Corinne arrived enmasse and Union Station was created, the settlers received them and found a way to exist together, for the most part, cohesively as a community.  

Yet, these distinctions between community members exist to a large degree today.  The posterity of the early Mormon settlers still live in Ogden, as do the children of their "Gentile" counterparts.  However, from my perspective, Ogden does not suffer the deep acrimony that sometimes afflicts diverse communities that contain a large minority population.  Mormons now constitute a minority of people (about 30%-35%) living in the city.

Thus, I consider Ogden one of the places most unlike Utah in the state.  As a faithful Mormon myself living in the city, I make it a point to build bridges and understand other people's faith, ethics, or world view and I share my own when appropriate.  My experience has taught me that there is no room in our community for disparaging other's beliefs.  Divisive speech breeds contempt.  It is my hope that regardless of creed, belief, or ethical system, that all members of the community will honor our founders' dedication, sacrifice, and tolerance as we work to make Ogden a greater place for everyone.  

Edifice in Embryo: Utah's Territorial Capitol

The family and I took a trip to St. George recently.  While on the way home, we stopped for a meal in Fillmore and decided to take a stroll around the old Territorial Capitol building.  It was an interesting experience.

There is a remarkable feeling of irony in Fillmore.  The great plans of it being the grand central Capitol of the State of Deseret lay unrealized.  The town is sleepy with broad streets and quite turn of the century cottages.  There is a great sense of 'what could have been'.  In the center of town, surrounded by weathered homes and a roof damaged public rec center is Utah's Territorial Capitol.

The edifice itself speaks to the failed dreams of territorial glory.  The Capitol Building is only one wing of a planned four wing structure.  On the north side, the concrete shows the curve of the planned rotunda that would act as the center point of the separate wings.  Instead, today it is an open air plaza.

Here is what was originally planned.

The politics and acrimony that existed between the Territorial Legislature and the Federally appointed Territorial Governor make for very interesting reading.  Had the relationship been better between Utah and the U.S Government, Utah's history and geography would have turned out much different.  In a way, Utah is still bristling from its rough treatment up to its entrance into the Union.

Nevertheless, the embryonic Territorial Capitol speaks to the dramatic impact that changes in use of space can have on our communities and skylines.  When state business and influence shifted from Fillmore to Salt Lake City, the dreams of a grand Capitol simply faded into the history books.  Fillmore has never been the same since.    

Modern Communism: Is China's Political System Better than America's?

I recently watched this very interesting TED talk from a Berkley educated communist apologist.  I highly recommend this video:



While I don't agree with his assertion that China's system is the best on earth, it is very interesting to get a peek inside their political system to understand their perspective and world view.  It once again reiterates to me the marvel of America's existence, the miracle of our system, and the gratitude we should have for the rights and liberties we enjoy here.

However, I do concur with his assessment that American-style democracy is not right for everyone.  Our system came into being for very different reasons than other nation's systems.  Compelling our system on other nations who are not prepared for the responsibility that comes with it is an exercise in futility.  

Failing Forward: My Turn As The Employee From Hell

Life isn't always full of rainbows and unicorns.  In fact, sometimes it is downright uncomfortable.  With that in mind, let me share an experience from my youth:

When I was 15 and living in Texas, my father had a self-employed friend, Mark, who needed some help around his business.  It turns out he had a multi-level marketing business that sold shampoos, lotions, and other cosmetics.  Since my father was eager to get his sons out the door and being productive in the world, he connected me with his friend.

Mark was a single guy who drove a Jaguar.  For my first assignment, I was dropped off at a storefront he rented in a strip mall.  He instructed me to move a giant pile of boxes into a van parked in front of the store.  It was August in Houston.  The humidity was 100% and the temperatures were around 100 degrees...and we were at sea level.  Mark gave me the keys to the van and said, "Go turn the A/C on so the van stays cool."  This sounded simple enough but I was only 15 and had little experience with cars.  I turned the keys until cool air blew out of the vents.  But, I neglected to turn the engine on (not knowing that it was an important part of the process).  Mark quickly left the scene to run some other errands.

Three hours later I was done loading the van.  Mark arrives and say, "Why isn't the engine running???"  I replied that I had never turned it on.  At that point Mark had a flash of disbelief run across his face quickly followed by panic and then sad acquiescence.  He reached in the van, and turned the ignition.  Click-click-click-click-click.  The battery was dead.  He gave me $20 and told me to walk across the street and purchase some jumper cables.  I came back, jumped the van and drove to a warehouse.  The original plan was to unload the boxes and stack the contents somewhere.  However, given what had just happened he told me to just throw the boxes in a pile and go home.  When I asked what was in the boxes, he replied: "$5000 of lipstick".  Oops.

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A couple months later Mark called and wanted me to do some work.  Given my first experience I was apprehensive to go.  My father encouraged me to go and thought things would go more smoothly this time. At that time, I had just received my drivers license.  Mark announced that he had borrowed a truck from a friend of a friend and he wanted me to drive it to a warehouse.  But first we needed to load it full of metal shelves.  We put six shelves in the truck, Mark tied them down, and I proceeded in a caravan to the warehouse.  Along the way we made a wide turn through an on-ramp to a feeder road.  We drove down the feeder road about a quarter mile and the car I was following in our caravan turned on their hazard lights.  I thought they had car trouble.  The driver stopped, walked back to my car, and asked me how many shelves we loaded.  I told him six and then turned around to count only 5 in the bed.  Just then, a Ford Taurus pulled up behind us missing its windshield.  A middle aged lady in a Sunday dress stepped out with little bits of glass all over her and shaking terribly.  She was ok but shelf Number 6 made a big mess of her car.  Mark arrived to cut the lady a check for her windshield and paint job.

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Several months later Mark called again and wanted me to work.  I strongly resisted this time but after some strong persuading from my parents, I capitulated and agreed to go.  This time Mark wanted me to do some work around his home.  He instructed me to clean some of his floors.  He also instructed me to fill up his waterbed located on the second floor of his home.  The bedroom was located just over his photography studio which was full of all kinds of camera equipment.  Mark showed me how to hook up the hose but the water was flowing incredibly slow.  I asked Mark if he had any other chores he needed done while the bed filled.  He instructed me to rake his yard (1 acre) and burn the leaves.  Mark then left.  Three hours later, I had finished the the yard work.  It was then I realized I had forgotten to turn of the water to the waterbed.  I ran into the home to discover that the waterbed looked like the Astrodome.  It was an unnatural sight and I panicked.  I called my mother who arrived and as soon as her eyes caught sight of the bed she panicked.  She called Mark and when he walked in the room he panicked.  This bed became a water time-bomb that was holding us all hostage.  We tried emptying the bed but the hose only trickled out water a the same painstakingly slow rate that it had filled.  I went home.

The next morning, Sunday, I got a call from Mark that the bed had burst.  He requested my help pulling all of the carpets out of his home, which I kindly obliged.
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A few weeks later Mark called again and wanted me to do some work.  I was adamant that I did not want to work for Mark anymore.  Nevertheless, my parents persuaded me to give it one more try.  When I arrived, Mark told me that he needed me to repaint his camera room since it was severely watermarked from the previous disaster.  He gave me two buckets of white paint and a brush and then left.  It took me a few hours but I got the room painted.  I used one bucket of paint to do most of the room.  When I ran out, I opened up the other bucket and started doing touch up.  However, I noticed there were spots where the paint wasn't drying.  It was only then that I realized I had painted the room with flat white paint and then had touched it up with glossy paint.

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Mark called me again several weeks later and this time I knew what I needed to do.  I met him at his house and told him that my self-confidence could not endure anymore experiences working for him.  He expressed his regret and we parted ways.  But, I do have to give him credit for paying me for every job.

The moral of the story here is that life is full of uncomfortable experiences that cause us to grow.  In this case, Mark learned to supervise his youthful employees more.  In my case, I learned too many things to list.