"The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable,-- of a bad one, to make it less valuable."-- Henry David Thoreau
I have a dog: eternal nuisance. Forever to be fed, watered and walked.
Grow up, I say; go to school, college, learn the law. He won't.
Forever at my heels, he says, "You bought me. Be responsible."
No, I say, and open the door. Go, defy the cowboys on the road. He does, and I, opening all doors, try to sleep until I hear a paw upon the step.
This story makes me want to scream. Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old high school freshman, shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in Paris, Texas. The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.My son saw the story on Facebook and I saw a link to it at Skeptical Brotha, and read it in the Trib. There's even a blog, Free Shaquanda Cotton: Leave Shaquanda Notes of Love!
Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.
