Dirt Law

Once upon a time there was this lovely couple who bought some land in Missouri. They loved camping, but one day someone bought the lot next door and thought the road leading to the couple's land was part of his land. He yelled at the couple for trespassing.

The sheriff showed up and told the man that the couple had a right-of-way, but he didn't care. He would make as much trouble as possible for the couple as they tried to get to their own land.

The neighbor bullied and threatened the couple. They went to the sheriff, then hired lawyers and went to court, but neither the sheriff nor the court cared. So the bully also bought the land on the other side of the road, then blocked the entrance to the couple's land.

The couple had no recourse but to contact a reporter from a large newspaper. The reporter wrote a story about the couple and tried to interview the sheriff, the lawyers and the judges, but they ignored his request for an interview.

He husband said "there's no law there." and frustrated with everything just stayed away.

The answer was staring him in the face. The complete lawlessness of the area made it fertile for anyone of vicious disposition, and so the area was overrun by a motley band of thugs. The bully, the sheriff, the lawyers and the judges were never seen nor heard from again.

The end.

Law and Justice are Unrelated

Law must be consistent with morality. Morality is founded on empathy and fairness or justice. When law diverges from morality, justice is no longer related to law. Law is entirely subjective to the interpretations of the powerful. Justice is rigidly attached to morality.

When the divergence of law and justice becomes great enough, symptoms emerge in the form of negative economic circumstances such as poverty and economic-related crimes. The rulers become labeled as apathetic or malevolent tyrants.

When the divergence of law and justice is grieved in public, the law must be adjusted or the powerful will be swept away in revolution.

Suspending Disbelief

I remember one summer when I was still a teenager I had the opportunity to stay in a Michigan lakefront summer cottage surrounded by miles of forest starting in early June so I could look for a summer job at one of the local cherry canneries during harvest time. Up and down the old dirt road nearly all the neighboring houses were empty. On a dusty book shelf I found a copy of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. 

I couldn't turn off the lights in the house for days, and all the many nights offered from the uncovered windows was the sound of the forest and the not-so-distant water, and complete darkness, as if the windows were painted black on the outside and the reflections from within caused such great cognitive dissonance I had not the courage to turn off the lights to aid in seeing through the windows unobstructed. I was terrified at what I might see if I did.

As I get older, it becomes harder to suspend disbelief. the supernatural holds nothing over me anymore. No evidence of a supernatural audience or ghostly influence holds court or sway. This is from experience of pure gullibility and its consequences. When I was young I was heavily influenced by fundamentalist religion and people who believed in ghosts and aliens visiting earth.

I never saw a ghost and I know that U.F.O. means Unidentified Flying Object, nothing more.

When I was in the Navy I was standing watch at the stern of the U.S.S. Hermitage when over the headset the Port Lookout reported the planet Venus as a contact because it was so much brighter than actual stars. So many member s of the crew came from urban environments where the stars cannot be seen due to light pollution.

At sea in the pitch dark of night there may be moon and star light, but most of the time we could only see the dim green bio luminescence of  sea creatures under the surface. During the day you would never know anything was just under the surface with exception of fins, breaches by dolphins and whales, and occasional flying fish.

What creatures lurk in the murk? What creatures lurk outside our windows at night, obscured by the reflections of our safe hearths and in the shadows of pyres? It's a regular topic on a radio show hosted by George Noory on Coat-To-Coast-AM. I can no longer suspend my disbelief without great effort by an author, but you should add George Noory to your bucket list of experiences. The callers into his show are totally worth it.