Bob Hazard

you have fully paid your debt to society. In several Southern states, disenfranchisement of African-American men is higher now than at any time since the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.

There are additional aspects that underscore the problem with the American style justice system. But we should start by talking about what we can, and should do to begin fixing this broken, immoral, and in some cases unlawful criminal justice system.

1. Get rid of mandatory minimum sentencing. Let judges judge what is best for the individual as well as for society after hearing all the evidence. Sentencing guidelines can be useful but mandatory sentences eliminate the scales of justice in favor of just locking more folks up. Diversion could better serve their situation (e.g. drug addiction), and the cost to the individual and to society is far greater by incarcerating. At a minimum we must get rid of “three strikes” types of laws in the 28 states and the Federal government where they still exist. There is some movement on this in California lately, but we have a far way to go.

Mr. Hazard is an Associate Editor of this paper and a former president of Divided America Birnam Wood Golf Club. The Importance of National Unity

The glue binding America is coming undone. Every aspect of life is becoming strained by growing divisiveness. Which media do we trust? Who is worthy of federal aid? How can we ever put this country back together as “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”?

Trust in our political leadership has crumbled. Leaders at all levels are held up for ridicule – the president, Congress, governors, urban mayors, corporate CEOs, union bosses, and even police chiefs – all have approval ratings that have reached all-time lows.

2. Invest in schools, teachers, libraries, community development programs, Character Counts mental health and wellness in distressed communities (give social support During his lifetime, painter Norman Rockwell turned out 323 covers for the BEFORE incarcerating) and thereby end the school-to-prison pipeline! This use Saturday Evening Post depicting the most decent qualities in our national charof civilian resources as an alternative to policing is what folks mean when they acter through the eyes of the ordinary working stiff. In defense of civic virtue talk about “defunding” police. It isn’t that anyone wants to eliminate police, but and American exceptionalism, none stood greater than his depiction of the Four we do need to begin using better trained, less confrontational, and less violent Freedoms. He focused first on freedom of speech, characterized as a plain man means to help create community safety. The police should not be expected to in workmen’s clothes, hands hard and calloused, calmly having his say at a do everything when so many current police functions could be handled more New England town meeting, while his neighbors, each of whose expressions humanely and far more inexpensively than heavily armed police. Rockwell captures with marvelous exquisite detail, listen to him respectfully.

The linkage between education, or a lack thereof, and incarceration is powSimilar covers depicted his version of freedom of worship; freedom from erful. Instead of incarceration, which diminishes economic prospects, public fear; and freedom from want, as seen through the eyes of the common man. investments in employment assistance, education and vocational training, and Today, Norman Rockwell’s portrayals would be derided as corny and trite, financial assistance would help mediate the conditions that lead marginalized and perhaps even racist. individuals to police contact in the first place. This is just a decision. smart investment Partisan Gridlock

According to the US Department of Education: “If our states and localities Are we losing the America that once earned our praise? Are we permanently took just half the people convicted of nonviolent crimes and found paths for divided between “red” and “blue”; rich and poor; Black, White, Brown, Red, them other than incarceration, they would save upwards of $15 billion a year.” or Yellow? How far have we fallen since our 44 th president Barack Obama pledged back in 2008 that “America is a place where all things are possible”? 3. We must redefine drug addiction and drug use: not as a criminal offence, Soon, this country will choose either Joe Biden or Donald Trump as our 45 th or but as a public/mental health issue, better treated with counselling, addiction 46 th President of the United States. Whatever the outcome, nearly half the countreatment, out-patient, and harm reduction programs. try will feel cheated. The greater risk is hatred and rage. As President Abraham Lincoln warned us, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” 4. We have to restore voting rights to those who are done serving their time. We need to start treating former felons as former and fully restore their civil rights A Frightening Trend so they can be fully reintegrated into society. Has America become too racist, too smug, and both too poor and too rich? Even individuals charged with misdemeanors or violations often end up incarAre we united in common values, that includes belief in equality under the cerated, creating disastrous long-term consequences for the individual and law, basic respect for public order and the right to peaceful public protest? Do society at large. Rather than investing in public health and community-driven we collectively believe in the dignity of every single man, woman and child, safety initiatives, cities and counties are still pouring vast amounts of public and the need for accountability when it comes to our government? resources into the processing and punishment of these minor offences. The sociI believe citizens undervalue the unity effort it takes to keep a nation glued etal cost of this approach is insanely expensive. It’s time to reform our approach together. E. Pluribus Unum – from many, one – looks quite different when the not only to policing, but to the entire spectrum of criminal justice. It is time to emphasis is shifted from Unum (one nation) to Pluribus (many groups) each reduce our society’s use of incarceration, reimagine justice and create a more competing for the power to correct past grievances. productive society. This how we can enjoy Truth, Justice, and the American Big corporations and wealthy donors have pumped more than $400 million Way. However we approach it, we must bring sanity to the criminal justice sysinto lobbying organizations like “Black Lives Matter” to demonstrate their tem that is destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and bankrupting the rest of sensitivity and social concern for the less privileged. Some of these dollars us to pay for the broken distortion of what passes for criminal justice today. •MJ have been funneled to agitators, whose goals are to set up cop free zones in major cities, rewrite the history of America and tear down all statues and monuments that they find offensive. Arson, looting of private property, DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION 50 + YEARS EXPERIENCE - LOCAL 35+ YEARS • FLOOR LEVELING • QUALITY REMODELING J ARROTT & REAL E S T A T E INV E SPECIALIZING CO. 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Collectively, they form a good basis to begin: Nearly 100% of Americans condemn the brutal killing of George Floyd HAZARD Page 234 25 June – 2 July 2020 • The Voice of the Village • MONTECITO JOURNAL 19

RAGE (Continued from page 12) on your network can get to any other device on your network because they get along nicely. Which means your TV, among other things, can access your purchase history, browser history, search history, and passwords – from anything within range that’s “smart.” Maybe a better word than “smart” would be “spy.” As Aretha Franklin sang presciently in a song, ironically, written in 1984, “Who’s Zooming Who?”

Apoca-clicks Now!

If you think it’s a benign problem that you have an easy-to-hack network inside your home tying together all your sensitive info, to give you an idea how things can get epically out of hand, consider the Mirai botnet. “Botnet” is Nerdu for a network controlled by an invisible, typically malevolent source without your knowledge.

The Mirai botnet works exclusively through your highly vulnerable (meaning hackable) Internet of Things. When I say “easy to hack” I mean like a child could do it with a flip phone.

The Mirai was first detected on October 21, 2016. Its test run was crashing a million Deutsche Telecom users. Soon thereafter it went to work Wi-Fi Backlash on other networks of things, crashing Call me a curmudgeon, but personTwitter, Spotify, PayPal, Netflix, eBay, ally I prefer information privacy to a and Reddit. The reason we know all printer that gossips with Alexa and these attacks came from the Mirai is all my other things, and orders the that botnets leave a digital “snail trail” most expensive thing on the menu of code as the worm attacks different when it’s hungry. You see, my printer targets. happens to be a picky eater and only

Scaling up, on October 24, 2016 likes HP premium toner that’s priced Mirai crashed the entire electronic like caviar run through a wine press. infrastructure of Liberia. And it rats me out to HP when I order

In an article in UK’s Telegraph, it off-brand toner refills. Again, who’s was theorized this shutting down of Zooming who? the entirety of Liberia was a tune up Excessive Wi-Fi has actually for something much bigger and that spawned an industry of “dumb” Mirai’s ultimate goal was… wait for appliance revival: premium recondiit… likely presidential election intertions of old school appliances with no ference in the U.S. later that month. smart connectivity whatsoever. I’m The Telegraph article that espoused talking $400 for a “dumb” Sunbeam the U.S. election interference theory two-slice toaster from 1954, and $300 was published on November 4, 2016 for a stout Panasonic “Point-O-Matic” by a reporter named Cara McGoogan. pencil sharpener that’s built like a tank Our presidential election took place four days after the appearance of and just fricking works. Of course, it won’t send a warning to your phone No Wi-Fi, but you could sharpen a fireplace tool with this beast McGoogan’s article. And I think you that your point is getting dull, or that I recently had to go clean out my of many manufacturers of the things know what happened from there. your pencil is getting too short, nor is folks’ place. Their appliances, 40 one finds on the Internet of Things Kinda makes you think twice about it enabled with geotracking to let you years old on average and still funcis to re-sell your info and ultimately making your network code 123456. Or know where you left it. That’s kind of tioning, only did what they did. The get you to be a long-term subscriber rolling the dice with a factory default. the point. only thing they connected to was a to a brand. Then if you don’t keep wall outlet. Things were built to be up with your subscriptions, updates, durable and hearty – remember that patches, and occasionally throw down term, “durable goods”? “Durable a credit card or update your info, Big goods” meant a consumer good that Brother may throttle back your phone would last more than three years. or router or printer or no longer supHow many of those do we have port an old operating system. On the • Available to care for our neighbors, and accepting new patients. • Infection control protocol followed, with all areas sanitized including wait area and exam room. today? Your phone? No. Computer? No. Blender? Maybe. Today’s business model is to sell you a product that’s adequate but continuously Information Highway, it’s information highway robbery. Compare this to all the dumb stuff my folks bought… You’d buy these 1483 E. Valley Road, Suite M | 805.969.6090 in need of upgrades, updates, and “optimizations.” products once, and they’d work forever. Now that’s my definition of More importantly, the goal today “smart.” •MJ 20 MONTECITO JOURNAL “God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.” – Naguib Mahfouz 25 June – 2 July 2020