That’s Life? ... What’s Life?

Yesterday the high was over 50℉. Today there are snowflakes in the air. We’ve reached a point at which the weather makes as much sense as an Alabama Supreme Court decision or the reactions of a US Senator from that state. Perhaps it’s time we insist on a critical thinking skills test for those who seek appointed or elected public office.

In the interest of further identifying the contents of the can of worms the Alabama IVF decision has opened, consider these items:

• One aspect that has received limited coverage is the question of the legal definition of being alive. If one doesn’t meet a legal definition of being alive, how can wrongful death occur? As a resource, I suggest you take a look at The Systems View of Life, A Unifying Vision. Follow this link for an excerpt.


• When, and under what circumstances, does legal personhood occur? Corporations are legal persons but don’t seem to face a death penalty for the killings due to climate change or a multitude of pollutants or some reckless acts. Is there such a thing as the wrongful death of a corporate entity due to a hostile takeover? Should there be?


• Is there confusion over distinctions between “persons” and “people?” The Declaration of Independence uses the term people. An online search could not find the word “person” therein. Lincoln referred to "government of the people, by the people, for the people.” The Constitution begins “We the people....” and promptly references “Person” in Article 1, Section 2.

I don’t think we want to call for a constitutional convention and chance throwing out babies and bathwater, but a significant convening of lawyers, linguists, politicians, systems experts, and others who could help sort through the implications of the incremental battles that are currently being fought across our country might be beneficial, unless politicians and jurists and the ilk enjoy suffering and dying from self-inflicted wounds all while creating chaos for the rest of US.

Personal

By Tony Hoagland

Don’t take it personal, they said;

but I did, I took it all quite personal—

the breeze and the river and the color of the fields;

the price of grapefruit and stamps,

the wet hair of women in the rain—

And I cursed what hurt me

and I praised what gave me joy,

the most simple-minded of possible responses.

The government reminded me of my father,

with its deafness and its laws,

and the weather reminded me of my mom,

with her tropical squalls.

Enjoy it while you can, they said of Happiness

Think first, they said of Talk

Get over it, they said

at the School of Broken Hearts

but I couldn’t and I didn’t and I don’t

believe in the clean break;

I believe in the compound fracture

served with a sauce of dirty regret,

I believe in saying it all

and taking it all back

and saying it again for good measure

while the air fills up with I’m-Sorries

like wheeling birds

and the trees look seasick in the wind.

Oh life! Can you blame me

for making a scene?

You were that yellow caboose, the moon

disappearing over a ridge of cloud.

I was the dog, chained in some fool’s backyard;

barking and barking:

trying to convince everything else

to take it personal too.

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