Pardon Power

Wednesday morning while walking the dog, Lori saw that a male deer had caught its antlers in the netting that hangs at the back of the driving range at the Denison Golf Club, and it was struggling mightily to free itself. I jogged across the street to see for myself, and realized that the animal was in serious jeopardy. So I went back to the house, grabbed the sharpest paring knife I could find, and jogged back through the parking lot of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, as it was the straightest path to the trapped beast. As I approached, its struggles increased, hindquarters swinging around quickly when it reached the end of the snarled netting’s length.

I did not see any way that seemed remotely safe to single-handedly free the buck. Then a man from the church came up, and soon thereafter a Hittle Electric truck pulled up and two more men climbed out (one carrying an electric Sawzall-type device. These three men were able to grab the netting and pull the buck toward them - while keeping one of the support poles between themselves and the deer as it drew closer. The man with the Sawzall was able to cut a fair amount of the netting away, but the noise of the device agitated the deer. With the animal almost free the man who had been primarily restraining the buck was running out of strength. As the deer started to get lively again, the man asked me to step in and try to cut the last of the netting before he had to give up his effort. Thankfully, I was able to cut the last few strands and free the deer. It was pretty exhausted, and may have been too stressed to survive in the days ahead. But at least we gave it a chance at life. If we hadn’t freed it, the Granville Police were preparing to put it out of its misery by dispatching it with a gun.

Being “on the hook” to write an essay each week means that sometimes I struggle to find an interesting topic or theme to explore. As often as not these days, my struggle is to resist the urge to comment on the news of the day. I’ve done a good job of curating the quality and limiting the quantity of news that I take in, but one would have to be living under a rock to be unaware of the multiple killings of Minneapolis residents in the past couple of weeks by ICE agents. These killings sicken me.

I believe that ICE agents are regularly breaking laws with their actions - not just in their use of lethal force, but in their invasion of homes, their damage of property, and their assault and detainment of U.S. citizens. And I would suggest that these ICE agents are acting with impunity for one simple reason - they believe that Donald Trump will pardon them if they are ever convicted of federal crimes. In short, their actions can’t be illegal if they are being taken in service to the President, right?

It’s possible they have received verbal assurances to this effect. Such assurances really aren’t necessary, though. Donald Trump has already issued blanket clemency to nearly 1,600 people convicted of crimes related to the January 6th, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol building. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the ICE agents in Minneapolis are among those that were exonerated.

All of this is to say that we have given the office of the U.S. Presidency power that we never believed would be used in the way it is being used today. So I would like to see some limits placed on the Presidential pardon power.

The people in the sub-zero streets of Minneapolis exercising their 1st Amendment rights to free speech are like those three men and me on Wednesday. They’ve gone outside to see if they can help correct something that should absolutely not be happening. And some of them have paid with their lives.

It’s hard to hold a criminal accountable if you cannot identify them. ICE agents wear masks, and the Department of Justice is doing everything it can to protect the anonymity of the agents involved in killing those U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Masks + Dept. of Justice abetting the crime + a President willing to pardon anyone who does his bidding = a recipe for abuse of federal power. It is the biggest threat to democracy I have ever witnessed.

I have plenty more thoughts regarding the motives behind this ICE activity and the most likely chain reaction of more horrible events that may occur, but this is enough for today.

I believe that our democracy will hold, because most of us are inclined to stop what we are doing and work together to help a struggling deer.

Sunday Supper

This One-Pot Cabbage Roll Soup caught my eye this week. Slow Cooker Butter Chicken sounds nice. This Winter Salad looks sturdy, and satisfying. And if you can get out of your driveway to buy the ingredients, this Pistachio White Hot Chocolate would be nice to sip while you read a book this Sunday.

Sunday Music

Here’s Guitarricadelafuente at the NPR Tiny Desk. Chance The Rapper, at a recent appearance on The Late Show, with Stephen Colbert. Madison Cunningham, performing “Wake” live in Boise recently. We lost Bob Weir recently. Here is his performance at the NPR Tiny Desk about five years ago. Enjoy!

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Have a great week ahead!  You can do anything you set your mind to. Let me know how I can help.


Peace & Love,