A short snippet from Minute by Minute

Following is a snippet from my forthcoming book Minute by Minute. The book explores the ideas and actions that form my current approach toward constructing a caring community. I will be posting a number of snippets over the next few weeks and plan to publish the book in October. Please read, reflect, and comment.


Snippet: Minute by Minute

“This crime bill will put more cops on the streets and toughen the sentences for all offenders,” I read the President’s words in the lead article of the May 1st newspaper. The headline read: New Anti-Crime Bill Expected to Pass. I read on:

The House and Senate are expected to pass the President’s proposed crime bill this week. The bill, hailed as the most comprehensive crime legislation in history, will provide more than five billion dollars for new prisons, prison renovations, and putting more police officers on the streets. “We are winning the war on crime,” the President said. “And this bill will bring a victory, sound and sure and soon. America will be safe….”

I put the newspaper down and left for class. I continued to think about America’s approach to crime all day long. Our leaders were about to pass a bill that would continue to solve the crime problem through punishment and a system that puts more people behind bars. The leaders think that our system is working but only fails because we don’t have enough personnel to maintain it.

“What would you do to reduce crime?” a student in my criminology class posed the question after listening to Doc Warner criticize the system’s effectiveness.

“Two things,” Doc Warner said. “Control guns and legalize drugs.”

“But the guns are not the problem, it’s the people pulling the triggers,” someone behind me said.

I thought about that and could see the validity of the statement. I once used the same argument in an article I wrote about drugs. Drugs are objects; they don’t jump down people’s throats. What we need with guns is to teach responsible use, I thought. But before the thought could solidify, Doc Warner was contesting the idea.

“Well that’s bullshit,” he said. “People don’t kill, guns kill. If I want to kill Rod, I can get a gun in,” he looked at his watch. “One half hour. But it would be much more difficult to kill him right here and now without a gun. If it were harder to get guns, if we controlled guns, violent crime would be reduced. If someone is having an argument and there is a gun easily available, that can easily lead to killing. But without a gun, you have to think more about it and that gives time to cool down.”

“Guns make killing impersonal,” someone to my right said. “You don’t have to even touch someone. You can kill from a distance. You can kill without leaving a trace.”

“Yeah,” another student chimed in. “Who ever heard of a drive by knifing?”

The class laughed for a moment. “Crime would go down because it would be much harder to kill,” Doc Warner said.

“But how would you control guns?” I asked. “The United States produces and sells the most firearms. The black market would skyrocket if you outlawed guns.”

“That may be so, for awhile,” Doc Warner said. “But when production of firearms is halted, eventually the guns will be taken out of circulation.”

15 additonal money saving tips for Northwest Airlines

According to an article in the August 16, 2006, St. Paul Pioneer Press entitled: NWA WORKERS FACING LAYOFFS TAKE OFFENSE AT MONEY TIPS THAT INCLUDE DUMPSTER DIVING, (search for Northwest Airlines in archive) Northwest has a few unorthodox and "insincere" suggestions for their soon to be ex-employees to make ends meet.

After press exposure and employee "outrage" NWA pulled the list of 101 money saving tips from its employee website. So I say, let's give the airline a little help. I'll post a few tips here and readers can add more in the comments:

1. Ration meals. No more all you can eat dinners for your family. Each person gets an allotted amount. No eating until full; each person gets two meatballs and one spoonful of instant mash potatoes.

2. Cut back on condiments. No more filling your plate with relish or dabbing out whatever amount of mustard. Each person gets one level teaspoon of Ketchup on that hamburger.

3. Keep and eat leftovers an extra week. No throwing away perfectly good food, just because it's old.

4. Have an extended fast. Forget the natural 12-hour fast between supper and breakfast. Have a two- to three-week fast. Not only will you feel better, you will save a few bucks on your evening ration.

5. Shut the lights off. Use candles when you must have light. Use your iPod for a reading light.

6. Mooch. Neighbors have barbecues and get togethers, pop in and say "hi."

7. Plant a garden. It may take a few weeks for the veggies to be ready, but a bumper crop of potatoes and lettuce would come in quite handy in the fall.

8. Pawn off your bodily fluids. Raise extra funds by giving away your semen at the sperm bank or your blood by-products at the local Plasma Center.

9. Have a child, or two. More tax deductions, more money for you.

10. Sell your house. Find a cheaper place to live, like in your car or a campground or under the bridge by railroad tracks or under the freeway overpass, or, well you get the idea. (Okay, this one was one of the suggestions in the original 101).

11. Get odd jobs. Raise funds by washing windshields at street corners or collecting aluminum cans from around the neighborhood.

12. Find low-cost food options. Eat Ramen Noodles or visit your local soup kitchen.

13. Be creative. Use your imagination. Imagine working, imagine eating, imagine a better world. Lost in your imagination, you will have no need for all the pleasures of life you had become accustomed to.

14. Lower expectations. Hey, life sucks, it always has. So you had a job and got paid well, did work you could tolerate. You had it good. Accept your new existence and learn to live with less.

15. Burn stuff. To keep warm as winter approaches as well as to heat up your last bag of Ramen noodles, you can burn stuff in the fire barrel by the freeway overpass. Personally, I would start with the NWA pink slip and their employee handbook.

This is just a start, keep the ideas rolling.

Questions with a Silent Q

I inhaled the last drag from my Marlboro cigarette as I was driving down 38th Street and the stoplight at Portland Avenue turned yellow. It was decision time. Do I hit the gas or hit the brakes?

My legs go numb, a consequence of my indecision, and I coast as the light turns red.

"Is there a problem officer?" I ask a short time later, the car stopped along the side of the street, the officer at my door, his car with its glorious bright red lights flashing in my rear view mirror.

"Would you mind stepping out of the car please?" He asks and though I shouldn't, I decide to play the questions game with the gentleman.

"This car?" I ask and wait for his question.

"Step out of the car, NOW!" He yells. So I do step. As I open the door and step out, I say: "Command. Fifteen, Love."

"May I see your driver's license please?" He asks and I take it that he's starting the second round, as it was his serve.

"Is that the red card with my name on it?" I respond.

"Have you been drinking, Mister?" He retorts.

"Drinking what?" I ask.

"Let me see your license NOW!" he yells, reverting to his old attitude. I reach into my pocket, pull out the red card and hand it to him, beginning to bore of the game, even though I'm winning. "Command," I say, "Thirty, love."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He asks

"Don't you know?" I respond.

"Where are you from?" He asks.

"Non-sequential," I counter, "Forty, love. Game point."

"What game?" He serves.

"What game do you think?"

"Repetition," he says. "Fifteen, Forty."

"What time is it?" I serve.

"Where?" he counters.

I'm caught off guard, fumble, "Shit."

"Statement," he says excitedly, "Thirty, Forty."

"How old are you?" He serves.

"Isn't it on my license?" I respond.

"Where's your license?" He returns.

"Don't you have it?"

"Why should I have it?

"Because I gave it to you a moment ago," I slip.

"Statement. Forty, forty. Game point."

"Aren't you going to give me a ticket?" I ask, hoping he'd falter when brought back to reality, and the task at hand.

"For what?" he asks.

"For going thru the red light," I say.

"I win," he says with a gleam in his eye, smiles broadly, turns on his heel, and gallivants back to his car, gets in, and drives away.

I sit leaning on the hood of my car for a few moments, exhausted, and bewildered by the experience. Finally, I get in, pull out another cigarette, punch the lighter down, and continue on my way.

The Collection

Ripped to shreds…

All the tension, pain, anger,
fear, impatience…

Torn to pieces…

All the violence, hate, despair,
hopelessness, apathy…

And set sail on a gentle wind…
Never
To assemble again
in the same place
at the same time

Collecting…
Fragments of freedom
Pieces of peace
Jars of joy
Tins of Tolerance
Hay sacks of happiness
And large loads of love

Mixing them together…
To form a coagulating concoction
Transparent and elusive
Steamed to evaporation
Into a gas creating a cloud
To rain upon the world

…and soak life to the bone

The Start of a Dialog

I wrote Choosing Truth to explore the issues surrounding Paul Wellstone's death in a more entertaining fashion than a non-fiction piece or an essay. I explore the issues involved through characters. Claire Matheson, the university professor who comes to believe Wellstone was assassinated, is a skeptic at first. Only when she looks at the facts about the crash and things do not add up, does she then, first question the official story, and then generate a theory about what really happened.

I wrote this script as entertainment, but it certainly takes a strong position on a serious matter. I look at it as a starting point in a discussion that needs to occur about the plane crash that killed Senator Wellstone. As Claire learns more, she questions more, and she questions why the questions that should have been asked were not. For example, Why was the FBI looking for the black box (cockpit voice recorder) for 36 or so hours before saying there was no black box? Why was the crash blamed on the weather almost immediately even when another airplane was in the air a short time later? Why did that explanation sink once it became easier to just blame the pilots?

These are questions to begin a discussion about the crash. One thing the script did not bring out that I dealt with in my personal life was how quick people were to dismiss the possibility that a conspiracy may have occurred. People were quick to accept that the crash was just an accident. Even those who usually have open minds about sinister operators in our government were quick to dismiss any political malfeasence. Is it just too hard to believe that that could have occurred?

A close friend of mine, hearing me suggest that this may have been an assassination said: "Go write a story." That's what I did. And though it is based on a real incident, and most of the information was culled from original source materials in newspapers, magazines, radio programs, and internet-based media, it is a work of fiction.

Much better resources exist for looking at the actual facts of the matter, most notably American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone by James Fetzer and Four Arrows. I see Choosing Truth as a compliment to this and a good place to start a dialog and discussion about the death of Paul Wellstone. I encourage those interested to read it and then dig deeper to learn more.

Choosing Truth Now Available in Paperback

Choosing Truth has been published!

"When you don't even ask the questions about whether Wellstone's aircraft could have been brought down intentionally, you don't get the answers that could prove it."

Claire Matheson


Choosing Truth is a screenplay that explores the information and events surrounding the death of Minnesota United States Senator Paul Wellstone.

After examining the evidence and circumstances surrounding the plane crash that killed U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone on October 25, 2002, University of Minnesota-Duluth College Professor and Kennedy Assassination researcher Claire Matheson comes to believe there was a conspiracy involved in his death. She attempts to gain media coverage to raise important questions and expose the conspiracy. Amidst threats, tension, and denials, she puts her career and future on the line to speak out. She chooses truth.

Get it here (lulu.com) for $13.95