Final Steps

Early last year something came over the wire about a county sheriff having problems with the way federal agents were treating him and the property within his jurisdiction. I called and spoke with him about the legal tool meant to deal with those symptoms. Then in October that sheriff got together with a half-dozen other sheriffs to discuss these common problems of federal agents/agencies overstepping their authorities. Out of that, a larger conference was held in late January of this year--a bunch of county sheriffs ticked-off at the Feds. I sent an e-mail to the one sheriff, reminding him of our conversation last year. He gave a call, we talked, and he mentioned that there was a conference of county sheriffs of the western states taking place right then.

History: the sheriff came into existence around the 9th century, in England, which makes the sheriff the oldest continuing, non-military, law enforcement entity in history. In early England the land was divided into geographic areas called shires. Within each shire was an individual called a reeve, which meant guardian. This individual was originally selected by the serfs to be their informal leader. The kings observed how influential this individual was within the community and soon incorporated that position into their governing powers. The reeve soon became a king’s appointed representative to protect their interests and act as mediator with people of a particular shire. Through time and usage the words shire and reeve came together to be shire-reeve, guardian of the shire, and eventually the word sheriff.

Depending on the mood and needs of kings, the responsibilities of the Office of Sheriff ebbed and flowed until 1215 when the great document of freedom, the Magna Carta, was reluctantly signed by King John. This document had 63 clauses, 27 of which are related to the restrictions and responsibilities of the sheriff.

Because of the vast British Empire, the concept of sheriff was exported to places such as Canada, Australia, India, and of course, the American Colonies. Following the pattern of English government, sheriffs were appointed. The first sheriff in America is believed to be Captain William Stone, appointed in 1634 for the Shire of Northampton in the colony of Virginia. The first elected sheriff was William Waters in 1652 in the same shire (shire was used in many of the colonies, before the word county replaced it).

The duties of the early American Sheriff were similar in many ways to its English forerunner, centering on court related duties and protection of citizens. In 1776 Pennsylvania and New Jersey adopted the Office of Sheriff in their constitutions. The Ohio Constitution called for the election of the county sheriff in 1802, and from then on state-by-state, the democratic election of sheriff became not only a tradition, but in most states a constitutional requirement. The elected sheriff is part of America’s democratic fabric. In the United States today, of the 3083 sheriffs, with few exceptions, all are elected by the citizens of their counties. This characteristic sets the Office of Sheriff apart from other law enforcement agencies in its direct accountability to citizens through election. The Office of Sheriff is not a department of county government, but the independent office which exercises the sovereign powers of the people in interests of the public trust.

Anyway, I did get to Vegas on Thursday, I did speak with as many county sheriffs as possible, and it turns out that some are like politicians, and some are not. What if one hundred sheriffs or more called a press conference to say they intend to uphold their oaths and defend the Constitution? And since it’s recently come to their attention that the states have cast the requisite number of applications to trigger a convention call, and members of the 112th Congress have failed to carry out their constitutional duty to issue that call, what if the sheriffs proclaim that any member of Congress who steps foot in their counties may be arrested for breaking four separate criminal laws in failing to issue the call? Seems that’s what will be required. The conference I went to was for the sheriffs of the western states. The national conference of county sheriffs is this June in Nashville, Tennessee.

Late Winter Notes For This Year's Novel

The idea that each moment has everything possible within it. Life has been bumpy lately. It’s so very strange to put in time/effort to be something, and then, not only is all of society (indeed civilization itself) moving in a different direction--to a world far away from the one you had trained for--and the people apart of your life, your contemporaries, cannot see you for what you are based on your actions for the past ten/twenty/thirty years. For instance, the Article V Convention means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but if it did emerge into reality it would transform America, and in transforming America it would transform the world. How would things transform exactly? No one knows of course, but you can make good guesses based on what history shows, and all we know to be true about the human condition. So if the Article V Convention would be revolutionary, and you’ve been talking about it for years, burned through a small inheritance and then some, getting Supreme Court ruling, making documentaries, traveling to various political conferences to persuade others, etc--that would make you a revolutionary, right? And if you wrote a novel, sold a few thousand copies and occasionally get fan mail saying your work changed a life, that would make you a novelist, right? And if you’ve been creating/giving away/selling art for years, and continue to think about visual art constantly, that would make you an artist, right? And if you've written scripts and plays, and people have performed some to positive reviews, that would make you a playwright, right? And if you’ve been writing poetry since ten years old, a few collections worth, and still more to this day, that would make you a poet, right? Now what if you had done all these things, and everyone around you says things like “you better get your shit together” retirement saved, and looks at you as if you're just another human being? Guess what, not all lives are equally important. Anyone at any time can make their life important. Not because I say so, but because the universe says so. With the way things are going, having just read that, anyone might say--Wow, get a load of this guy blowing his own horn about how great he is. Well, yes, it could be that, but I’ll tell you it’s not: it’s a poet/writer/artist/revolutionary crying out in the wilderness, crying out in a world that is bleeding soul and not likely to survive without something. In some ways I love that it’s happening like this. Except that I’m not kissing one or two special women at present, that part I don’t exactly care for. The two fellow facebookers I fumbled? One of the things that crossed my mind was, what if instead of ditching me, they swatted me on the butt and said something like, “Don’t ever do that again, we’re not in it for romantic love, we’re in it for human love--if there is to be a love between us it will be higher, one that fits like the smooth, warm glove of old friendship; one that is stoic, free from any worry other than being true to what is in the heart and mind that moment.” Who knows, maybe life will unfold in such a way. Today I had to drive to Los Angeles to try to get my computer fixed; had no idea if it was going to work or not. Everything in life is upside down if I don’t have a functioning notebook. Turns out the person I paid to fix it pulled it off. I can write again, like a fish back in water. Of course I can write in a composition book, but when you’re working on a novel, you want it text in a word processing program; because re-writing is writing, it takes the same amount of time and means the same thing ultimately. Stone me now. Or, I’m stoned. No, I’m sad we can’t juice cannabis to cure cancer. Not yet at least. Time will tell. Remind to tell you about a sculptor I sold a Shakespeare book to, and her experience with gypsies while attending art school in Italy. And then tell about Nancy, the girl with Saint tattooed on her, then the gypsy with the light tattoo later that day.