Welcome to Stewart, not what I expected

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Wednesday July 04, 2018 · 6:37 AM PDT

2018/07/04 · 06:37

Water tower at entrance to Stewart Detention Center

I went to Lumpkin, GA today to visit detainees at the Stewart Detention Center. I had certain expectations going in, almost all of which were dispelled once I arrived.

I expected mostly Hispanic detainees. I found of the 8 we went to visit only 2 were Hispanic. The others were from Nepal, India, Senegal and Nigeria.

I expected recent arrivals with few local connections. I found people with decades in the US and deep connections.

I expected a "Detention Center". I found a prison.

I got to see a father and son reunited after the son spent 72 days in detention.

I heard stories from the dad, Adam (the detainee I visited about, not his real name), a wife of 12 years, a grandmother, a daughter and two volunteer translators.

As my traveling companion today told me, this is about the stories, not the statistics.

I'll share the stories over the next few days. I doubt they'll be what you expect.

To read more about my visit and experiences, please visit and subscribe to my blog.

tollieayscue.blogspot.com

It's supposed to be a sanctuary

wtayscue

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Monday November 06, 2017 · 2:18 PM PST

2017/11/06 · 14:18

I know it's too soon, but here goes.

Twenty something killed during the church hour at First Baptist Sutherland Springs, Texas. No details yet, but odds are it's another angry white guy with easy access to guns. Same old same old.

But this time it was in a church, and given the hour, presumably it was in the sanctuary during worship service.

The sanctuary. Merriam Webster defines sanctuary as "the most sacred part of a religious building; a place for worship; a place of refuge and protection." Today, thanks to the proliferation of guns in our society, the sanctuary in a small south Texas church became the opposite of all that. It was a place for fear and mayhem and death. It's the worst mass shooting in a church. It's unbelievable that we can even have a data point for that, but we do. According to the Mother Jones mass shooting database, this was the 5th mass shooting in a church, with a total body count of 57.

And the weak, impotent "thoughts and prayers" from our political class (Trump, Pence, Tx Gov Abbot, Paul Ryan) make me want to puke. In my personal image of God, he's pretty pissed too. He demands action. Each one of them holds the power to actually do something, but they won't.

Death, prayers, nothing, repeat. And so it goes.

We Choose Vegas

wtayscue

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Wednesday October 04, 2017 · 3:52 AM PDT

2017/10/04 · 03:52

Once again we have the gun crowd telling us not to politicize the latest worst mass shooting in US history. We heard it after the last worst mass shooting in US history and we’ll hear it again after the next worst mass shooting in US history.

For my friends that don’t speak NRA gibberish, allow me to provide some translation.

Now is not the time to politicize this tragedy. Translation: shut up for a few days until people lose interest.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Translation: this sounds good, but I’m not going to do anything.

But here’s the thing. We need to politicize the latest shooting. Now. And we need to keep doing it until our political class takes notice and chooses to do something.

And it’s not “too soon”. Did you ever notice how it’s always too soon after a shooting? It’s always too soon for the people who don’t want anything to change. In many cases these are the politicians who are in the pocket of the NRA. They spent $52 million on the 2016 election, $30 million on Trump alone. That buys plenty of empty “thoughts and prayers” and lots of doing nothing.

For those that think that the piles of bodies are just the “price of freedom”. That’s pure stupidity. Many countries are free and none of them allow anything close to the carnage that we tolerate every day.

This problem is not hard to solve. We simply lack the will. Random ideas that will enrage the gun crowd.

Register firearms and track the sales. The latest guy apparently has 23 guns in his room and 19 more at his home and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Likely all purchased legally, since apparently he was a “good guy” until Sunday night. If my neighbor decides to amass that stockpile I have a right to know. Full stop. And law enforcement should know and if you are one of those folks that thinks you need to be able have all this to keep the government from trampling on your rights (i.e., you may need to stage your own personal armed rebellion), well to hell with you.
Require registration of guns currently in private possession. Don’t like it? See above. After the registration period, if the gun isn’t registered, by definition it’s illegal.
Bring back the prior assault weapons (don’t bore me with your hair splitting about what constitutes an “assault weapon”) ban and throw out high capacity magazines while you are at it.
Require full background checks on all firearms sales and transfers. No exceptions (and yes, there are loopholes).
Bring back waiting periods.
Use the registration mentioned above to ensure that people with charges/convictions for violent crimes or mental illness have their guns confiscated or to at least ensure there is awareness of the presence of the weapons in the home.
No doubt there are countless other things we can do that would make a difference. None are a silver bullet individually, but collectively they will reduce the body count.

None of this is particularly hard. We just don’t have the will do it and I am sure we won’t this time either. Once we decided that 20 dead first graders at Sandy Hook was not going to cause us to take action, the debate pretty much ended. But we don’t have to tolerate the current situation. Just remember we collectively choose to.

Proudly Deplorable

wtayscue

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Saturday November 26, 2016 · 5:12 AM PST

2016/11/26 · 05:12

Of all the things that have ticked me off since the election, this picture takes the cake. I've mostly been off social media, news, any discussion of the election for the last three weeks. Then I run into this lovely gem while I am picking up lunch one day. It's a gift from one of our local white evangelical congregations, that I expect turned out better than 81% for Donald. A big fat middle finger to the community, showing their pride in electing a racist molester to the highest job in the land. Well done.

Pray, then what?

wtayscue

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Friday July 24, 2015 · 5:15 AM PDT

2015/07/24 · 05:15

Another mass shooting and more prayers. Suwanee, Chattanooga, northern Maine, now Lafeyette. One website that tracks such things (shootingtracker.com) shows 203 so far in 2015 with 259 dead and 744 in mass shootings alone, but that number is low because it is four days behind in reporting.
And we’ll pray. For families, for kids, for Marines, for the US…then we will go back to doing nothing about it.

wtayscue

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Saturday June 20, 2015 · 10:04 AM PDT

2015/06/20 · 10:04

We’ve tolerated this insanity in our country for too long. And it's driven by a relatively small but very loud minority of our citizens. They have no interest in compromise and no interest in improving the situation. As a comedian said recently, their position boils down to “screw you I love my guns”. It's time to move them out of the way and for the rest of us to get busy fixing this problem. It's time to boldly get off the sidelines and engage in the fight.

wtayscue

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Thursday April 03, 2014 · 5:40 PM PDT

2014/04/03 · 17:40

I've been taking a Facebook and Twitter break for most of the Lenten season, and it's been a good thing. Some of that stuff was just getting me too pissed off, not to mention wasting time that could have been better spent.
But a discussion yesterday motivated me to post this short blog and share it through social media. So, here we go...
We're on Spring Break this week in Cape San Blas, FL. We are having a great time and the weather has been perfect. I had to take the first couple of days off to give a presentation at the actuarial ratemaking conference in Washington, DC, which, even though I had to miss some vacation time, was a great experience.
Anyway, we took a boat tour of the Dead Lake in Wewahitchka yesterday. One of the highlights of the tour was seeing an alligator sunning himself on the bank. My son Will asked the guy driving the boat (Matt) about shooting an alligator. Matt explained how the Florida hunting laws work, tags, lotteries, etc. Will then asked him if you could shoot a gator if he was attacking you. Matt's response was that "you better have some bite marks on you".
This exchange prompted me to check the Florida laws concerning killing alligators ("taking" them, in the language of the statutes).
So here's the deal. If a gator is on your property, you have to call the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission. Even if the gator is threatening humans or pets, you can't go in your house and get a gun and shoot it. You have to call and wait for the Fish & Wildlife Commission to show up.
So, if Trayvon Martin and Ronald Westbrook had been gators instead of people (at least in FL) George Zimmerman and Joe Hendrix would have been required by law to stay in the safety of their car / home until the police showed up. If they did not, they would have been guilty of a third degree felony and sentenced to years in prison. Unfortunately, people aren't afforded the same protection under Stand Your Ground.
Like I said, you can't make this stuff up!!

Joe Hendrix will not be charged in the death of Ronald Westbrook

wtayscue

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Saturday March 01, 2014 · 8:41 PM PST

2014/03/01 · 20:41

Joe Hendrix unnecessarily killed a sick old man who presented absolutely no threat to him, and he is getting away with it because he can say he was scared and the state of Georgia can't prove otherwise. In my book, that makes him a coward and a murderer.

wtayscue

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Saturday November 30, 2013 · 8:44 PM PST

2013/11/30 · 20:44

I think I could write pages and pages on this, going down a dozen different rabbit holes. I really don't know where to begin.

wtayscue

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Monday November 11, 2013 · 4:17 AM PST

2013/11/11 · 04:17

2012 saw the highest percentage of uncontested state legislature elections in the last 10 years. This is not good for democracy.

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Welcome to Stewart, not what I expected

It's supposed to be a sanctuary

We Choose Vegas

Proudly Deplorable

Pray, then what?

Pray and Act Post Charleston

Stand Your Ground, Gators vs. People.

Joe Hendrix will not be charged in the death of Ronald Westbrook

The sad death of Ronald Westbrook

Too many uncontested elections