Tribute to a life well lived - by Judge Jim Gray

Recently, I received a telephone call from the daughter of Andy Blodget, a good friend of mine from San Luis Obispo. She told me that her father had died after having a heart attack the night before. This was a genuine shock, because Andy was only 52 years old and apparently in good health. Neither he nor his family had a prior history of heart disease.

In today's world, to die at 52 years of age of "natural causes" is simply too short a life, and I truly grieve for Andy and his family. But as I was driving up to his funeral last weekend, I was thinking that if I could design a good, useful and almost-perfect life, Andy's would be the one. First of all, and most importantly, he was devout as a husband and a father. In fact, in my view, the biggest insight into people's character is to look at the family lives they have led and the children they have raised. And in that regard, Andy was truly exemplary.

He was also a self-made man who was successful in his profession, to the extent that he was able to retire from the flower business in his early 40s. Thereafter he was a successful founder of a small bank and a winery, and also was involved in several notable philanthropic activities. And throughout all of his dealings, he acted with such integrity that I told many other people, as well as Andy himself, that without hesitation I would trust him with the safety and well being of my own family, as well as whatever treasure I had accumulated.

But the lasting message that this tragedy left me with is the reason I am interrupting my discussion about Iceland and devoting today's column to this subject, and that is to remember to enjoy and make use of your life while you have it. Our time on this planet is short and life can be fickle because, as I used to tell my jurors, tomorrow we could be hit by a train.

So at all times, keep in mind what is important and what is not. "My yacht is bigger than your yacht," and "I am more glamorous or beautiful than you" are false gods. And it is also true that our possessions can eventually own us if we are not careful. Yes, Andy made a lot of money, but family and integrity were always first and, as examples, his dependable Ford pickup truck and Timex watch suited him just fine.

Another way of looking at this, which I have tried to keep in mind, is to think that if you were on your deathbed and looking back over your life, would you feel that you had used your time on this Earth wisely? If not, it is not too late to change your approach. Unlike most people who have ever walked the face of the Earth, most of us are genuinely blessed to have many opportunities to try different things, and spend our time and resources on efforts that really matter.

So if Andy were still here, I think he would reaffirm that we should follow our passions — and not hold back. Another way of describing this thought is to cite a quote sometimes attributed to Mark Twain or Satchel Paige that in life we should "Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like nobody's watching."

Yes, there is a time for caution, but mostly that is overrated. Pursuing reasonable but mostly unbridled passion is what makes a life worth living, particularly if it results in helping other people.

In a related but similar matter, before we take a position on anything, we should try to understand the opposite point of view. In reality, we really cannot intelligently be in favor of anything unless we can see the opposite side of the question through the eyes of someone who believes it. Yes, that approach takes effort and can slow us down, but isn't that the whole idea about acting with integrity?

So please join with me in remembering the life of people like my friend Andy Blodget. His life was too short but he did it right, and he will be an inspiration to me for the rest of my life for that reason. To take that a step further, please join me in a toast to Andy and the other people like him that you know that have lived such successful lives.

And if we follow their lead, maybe, just like with Andy, we too, when we face St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, will have him find our names in the Book of Life, review the lives we have lived, and look at us and say: "Well done!"

James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court and the composer of the high school musical "Americans All" (Heuer Publishing). He can be contacted at JimPGray@sbcglobal.net, or through his website at http://www.JudgeJimGray.com.

Where fire meets ice - by Judge Jim Gray

Many people in Iceland talk about trolls as nasty or evil ogres, plagued with a seemingly endless aggressive streak. But others will tell you that these are untrue and shameful images that say more about the ignorance of the storyteller than about the trolls themselves. Yes, trolls are quite large and tremendously strong, but by nature they are essentially peaceful cave-dwellers who only come out at night. The reason they are nocturnal is that if they are touched by the rays of the sun they will turn into volcanic statues. In fact I saw many of these unfortunate creatures while on our recent trip to that most interesting island, which is east of Greenland and south of the Arctic Circle.

Actually Iceland and Greenland are misnamed, because most of Iceland is green, and almost all of Greenland is glacial ice. The common explanation is that the two lands were intentionally misnamed because Icelanders were happy being left alone and so adopted that inhospitable handle, but people in Greenland wanted to lure more tourists and residents with the more enticing name.

But it is no mistake that Iceland is a totally volcanic island, because it sits on the fault where the American tectonic plate meets the European plate. These plates are actually moving apart from each other at the average rate of about two centimeters each year, and that opens the earth for occasional but violent volcanic eruptions.

The most recent of these was in May when Eyjafjallajökull erupted. This actually added another page to the book titled "Who Says Life is Fair?" because the airport in the capital city of Reykjavik was closed just as a precautionary measure for about two hours, but due to the volcanic ash being spewed into the air and the direction of the prevailing winds, airports in England, Belgium and even Spain were shut down for weeks.

Volcanic eruptions actually occur comparatively frequently in Iceland. For example, between 1963 and 1967 there were a series of eruptions that created a new island that was named Surtsey in honor of Surtuk, who was the mythological Norse god of fire. Originally the new island was 1 square mile in size, but with subsequent erosion by the ocean's waves it has been reduced to about half that. It also has a bit of a comical history, because a group of Frenchmen actually landed on the island while it was being formed and claimed the new land for France. The attempt was unsuccessful.

Icelanders are a hardy people who are proud of their history and identity. Their language, which is based upon a combination of Nordic and German, is functionally unfathomable to non-speakers, and the Icelanders are actively trying to keep it that way. To that end they have constituted a native committee to coin new Icelandic words for any new developments that may occur. Thus they have their own word for "e-mail," "taco," "baseball" and others.

During the summer months, the sun almost does not set, which can, of course, cause a significant change in lifestyle. One example is that there is an annual golf tournament in June in which the participants tee off at 10 p.m. and finish about 4 in the morning. And parents have to be careful, because if they tell their children in June as they are going out to play to be back just before dark, they might not see them again until August.

Iceland was originally blessed with a significant growth of beech trees, but these were cut down by the early settlers to be used for their houses and boats. Some trees have been replanted, but because they are slow growing, most of the trees that now are on the island are still small. This has given rise to the comment that if you are lost in a forest in Iceland, all you have to do is to stand up.

About 40% of the exports from Iceland are fish, but that industry only employs about 6% of the workforce. The other money makers are lamb and sheep for their meat, iceberg-pure bottled water, and tourism. They once had an abundance of lobsters in their waters as demonstrated by one of our guides who told us that even her cat used to eat lobster. That leaves them with their primary fish — cod, salmon and halibut.

Iceland is also deservedly well known for its bird population. The ones that bring in the tourists are the puffins, which are truly amazing creatures. With their bright orange beaks, legs and feet, these birds that are about the size of a dove look like cute little flying tugboats. They live at sea except from April to August. In April the male comes ashore to make a tunnel in the dirt on the top of a shoreline cliff, and, because they mate for life, he waits for the female to arrive. If he gets impatient the male will allow a different female to share his nest, but if his "true love" appears, he kicks the new one out.

The female lays one egg per year, and then both parents go out to sea and dive up to 150 feet to capture anchovies or other small fish to bring back to the youngster. Amazingly enough, the average lifespan of puffins is about 25 years, and the oldest on record is 38.

Another remarkable bird found in Iceland is the Arctic tern. This is a sleek bird about the size of a robin that has a twin tail and comes to Iceland during the summer months, which is their mating season. But the amazing thing is that this small creature migrates every year down to the Antarctic! Considering its size, it would be the equivalent trip for us humans to fly back and forth to the moon three times per year.

Another interesting feature of Iceland is the presence of geysers, hot pots and other geothermal activity. This is so prevalent that about 80% of all homes and other buildings in Iceland are heated by piping in the naturally hot water. In addition, geothermal is also used to generate most of the island's electricity. But those are subjects we will explore next week.

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the composer of the high school musical "Americans All" (Heuer Publishing), and can be contacted at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or http://www.judgejimgray.com.

Breaking the cycle of poverty - by Judge Jim Gray

One final thing I wanted to share with you from the FreedomFest convention in Las Vegas a few weeks ago was the program that has spawned an upcoming movie, "To Catch a Dollar." This program provides small loans to people who otherwise would not qualify for any financing, so that they can start their own small businesses and break out of the cycle of poverty.

There are several similar programs around the world that focus upon this activity, such as Technoserve and the Heifer Project, but the one that was presented at FreedomFest was started in Bangladesh by the an economist named Muhammad Yunus. He observed that many people on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder had feasible ideas for starting businesses, but were totally unable to borrow any money to get started. So, 30 years ago, Yunus loaned a total of $27 of his own money to 42 different people for that purpose.

Of course that amount of money went a lot farther back then and in that country, but it still was a truly modest amount. Nevertheless, Yunus was amazed at the results. Within six months all of the women he had loaned money to had paid it back, and all of them had a new business started of some kind.

So over time he put together the Grameen Bank that made similar small business starter loans – but just to women. No collateral was required, but the loans had to be paid back within a year, complete with interest at 7.5% per year. The program also required that groups of at least five potential borrowers get together and approve each borrower's individual "business plan," as well as a plan for repayment before any of the loans would be made. Then that group would be required to meet together for an hour each week, at which time they would make payments of 2%of the principal and also compare notes about how they were progressing. In a world in which there are more than 4 billion cell phones, there are only 1.5 billion bank accounts. So the Grameen Bank became a bank for the unbankable, and it has been successful.

One of the truly noteworthy features of this program is that if one woman in the group does not make her payments in a timely fashion, not only is she forced to leave the group, none of the other women in the group will ever be qualified to receive another loan. So that really brings home the concepts of accountability, participation, teamwork and problem-solving. Knowing this, the group members unfailingly screen out women from the program whom they believe to be unreliable. And once the program gets started, frequently many of the group members have such an incentive for their colleagues to succeed that they often become each other's customers.

All of this has also resulted generally in giving women a higher status in their communities, which has in turn reduced the abuse of women and allowed them to succeed in their desires to implement better education and nutrition of children in their communities.

In the last 30 years, the Grameen Bank has implemented its program in many other countries in the developing world, with the result that literally millions of women have improved their lives by developing their own businesses, such as catering, cake baking, hair dressing, sewing, food and ice cream sales carts, and many more. Thus at this time the bank has more than seven million borrowers and $1 billion in outstanding loans, at an average of $200 per loan, in countries like Zambia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico — and they also have a 98% repayment rate! And for all of these successes, Muhammad Yunus has been rightfully awarded a Nobel Prize.

Now Yunus has begun a similar program with the Grameen Bank on the streets of Queens, the New York City borough, and has plans to expand it to at least five additional states in our country. The differences in our programs are that the borrowers cannot be on welfare, and, given our economy, the minimum loan is $500 and the maximum is $3,000.

I find this not only to be amazing, but also embarrassing. A bank from Bangladesh comes to New York City — the financial capital of the world — to give people the opportunity to show their innovation and entrepreneurship and create thousands of small businesses. I thought that America led the world in innovation and entrepreneurship, but in this area it seems to be Bangladesh!

As they say in the movie, "Microcredit ignites the tiny economic engines of the rejected underclass of society. Once a large number of tiny engines start working, the stage can be set for bigger things."

Last week I talked about Greg Mortenson going to small villages in impoverished parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and building schools with the commitment and assistance of the villagers themselves. And now we see a program from Bangladesh that empowers the lowest economic classes of women to get them on the road to financial solvency. Where are the headlines? Why can't our foreign aid system implement programs like those started by people like Mortenson and Yunus?

Instead, our government throws lots of money at foreign problems that, since there is seldom much accountability in where it goes, often result in foreign government officials driving fancy cars and their Swiss bank accounts getting fatter. But for about 1% of what our government now spends, these programs actually achieve positive and lasting results. So why are we not insisting upon a fundamental change in approach?

If you agree that we must change our approach, please use every opportunity to contact your representatives in Washington, and encourage them to implement these changes. And if you want more information about Muhammad Yunus' program with Grameen Bank, you can find it at http://www.tocatchadollar.com.

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, and the author of "A Voter's Handbook: Effective Solutions to America's Problems" (The Forum Press, 2010). He can be contacted at JimPGray@sbcglobal.net, or through his website at http://www.JudgeJimGray.com.

Dachau death camp revisited - by Judge Jim Gray

During the summer of 1965, between my junior and senior years at UCLA, I traveled to Western Europe with a friend and, among other things, visited the former concentration camp at Dachau, in the German state of Bavaria not far from Munich. This event changed my life, because it brought home to me man's potential inhumanity to man.

Dachau was one of the first extermination camps established by Adolf Hitler. It was where thousands of Jews, gypsies and other "undesirables" (in Hitler's mind) were gassed to death, and then cremated en masse. And it was also a place where perverse and sadistic "experiments" were performed on human beings by demented so-called doctors.

In other words, this was a place where terrible things were done with the sanction of the laws of the time. Dachau should always stand as an example of what can happen without the vigilance of good people. Therefore, it is a place that should never be forgotten.

Recently a friend and neighbor of mine in Newport Beach, whose name is Don Pewthers, spoke with me about his recent and long ago visits to Dachau, and how they compared. I asked him to write them down so that I could share them with you, and he agreed. So the following comes from my friend Don, with a few edits from me:

This past summer my wife, Carole, and I were planning an extended trip to Europe. I wanted her to experience Bavaria, as she had not been there. It was suggested that we include a visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. I was opposed.

In 1960, as a recent college graduate, I traveled in Europe for several months and spent a lot of time in Germany, where I had an American lady friend. Driving to Munich from Stuttgart, I had seen a small road sign which said "Dachau 10 km." We decided to visit as I had just finished reading a book on Adolf Eichmann and was interested.

When we arrived at the camp, we found that we were in the area where the gas chambers, the cremation ovens, and a mound with pansies in the form of the Star of David were located. The mound, a circle of some 25 feet across and four feet high, contained the ashes of 6,000 Jews who had been cremated. We were the only people visiting at that time. It was very emotional to enter the area where so many had died. You could see the barn-like building where families undressed, hung up their clothing, and prepared for a "shower," during which they were gassed to death.

After the shower, doors on each end of the barn were opened and bulldozers were used to push the bodies out of the chamber to the crematoriums a short distance away. There were two of these crematoriums with ovens that would accommodate about 12people at a time, with four in one and eight in the other. It was a very emotional experience and one that I did not want to repeat or expose my wife to. I was shocked that people who were my ancestors could be a part of this.

So now, in planning for our upcoming trip, I contacted an old college teammate and friend who has a business based in Munich, but lives in Atherton, Calif., most of the time. When the subject of Dachau came up he recommended that we add it to our plans. He said it was very interesting, etc. On his recommendation we planned for the visit. I had covered all of the gory details with my wife to prepare her for the visit.

But when we arrived there we found almost a "Disney World" atmosphere. There was a very pretty park-like walk from the parking area to the entrance where we were greeted at a reception area and given Audio guides. We noted that there was a restaurant and lots of high school age students who were there on an "outing," eating ice cream and enjoying a fun time. We started on the tour, which took us through the museum in what had been the administration building. They had the usual pictures we had seen since World War II, but most of the pictures were of people who were alive. We heard a recording of the prisoners' choir, saw the chess sets that the prisoners used, and were told that there were "comfort women" for the "good" prisoner workers. It sounded like a summer camp.

The barracks had been removed with the exception of two that had been left "as an example." The conditions in the barracks at the time must have been horrible. The bunks were constructed three high and nine across to accommodate 27 prisoners. But because the camp was designed for 8,000 to 10,000 prisoners, and there were 30,000 in the camp, three people had to sleep in the same bunk. The bathroom was open with 12t people using the toilets at the same time. Privacy was non-existent.

I was unable to locate what I had seen on my prior visit, so I asked about the gas chamber, crematorium, and the mound in which 6,000 people were buried. I was told that they were at the far end of the compound several hundred yards away. We would find a gate to that area. One of the crematoriums had been removed. We were told they were "experimental." The mound had been removed as well because it was "too stressful" for the local people.

It was stressful emotionally to think that human beings could commit crimes of this nature on other humans. Dachau was the first of these camps. It was constructed in 1933; the same year Hitler was elected chancellor. It could happen again, even in America.

After we returned from our trip, I had an opportunity to visit with my college friend who had suggested we visit Dachau. When I told him our impressions, he said that there is now a movement to remove the remaining parts of the camp. He said his son is married to a German girl and they live in Munich. He added that the attitude of the young people now is that anything that happened so long ago was done by their great-great grandparents and not something related to them. Naturally they would like to believe that it never happened. I would, also, like to believe that it never happened — but it did happen. And I think that everyone should be reminded from time to time that it could happen again. As a history major (who obtained a master's from Stanford in 1958), I keep reminding myself that history does, in fact, repeat itself.

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of A Voter's Handbook: Effective Solutions to America's Problems (The Forum Press, 2010), and can be contacted at JimPGray@sbcglobal.net or through his website at http://www.JudgeJimGray.com.

Effective fights for freedom - by Judge Jim Gray

This week I will continue to discuss the recent Freedom Fest convention in Las Vegas, where one of the speakers was Greg Mortenson.

You probably know of Mortenson as the co-author of the book "Three Cups of Tea," which describes his experiences in building about 50 schools for boys — and girls — in mountain villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His new book, "Stones into Schools," provides an update on this amazing success.

Mortenson is a fairly shy, humble and self-effacing man who stumbled upon his life's work project that is bringing a measure of peace to those two troubled and unstable lands. As was descending from his attempt to climb K-2, the second highest peak in the world, Mortenson became lost, sick and disoriented, whereupon he was nursed back to health by the people of one of the villages.

In gratitude, Greg promised to come back and build them a school, which he learned, was the most closely held desire of the villagers. Thereafter he kept his promise, and that began his story.

Mortenson does it right by employing the methods I was actually taught during my training for the Peace Corps. He understands that no program will be really successful unless it addresses what we in the Peace Corps called the "felt needs" of the community.

That means that the people in the community must actually want the project, and be materially involved in the decision-making and implementation process. And then the project only has a real chance to become permanent if it will continue to prosper without us.

In that regard, during training we were told the hypothetical story of a Peace Corps Volunteer, who was asked by one of the visiting Peace Corps staff members what he had accomplished during his two years of service.

The volunteer responded by pointing to some people working in a field and growing some drought-resistant grain, which he had introduced into his village, and pointing in another direction to the people working to install a new water treatment plant that he had initiated.

Finally, he pointed to a neighboring house in which a woman was working on her loom. She was doing work for the coop he had helped to start and that weaved native cloth in traditional designs to be sold in the tourist trade. And all of this was happening while he was sitting down and having breakfast.

In his work in building schools in remote mountainous villages, Greg Mortenson considers it essential to take the time to build up relationships with the tribal elders in the communities, listen to them, work with them, and be guided by them.

And he will not build a school unless the village is completely involved by donating the land, the necessary wood and the labor. As a result, none of his schools have been attacked by the Taliban, because the elders have influence and a strong following in their villages, and the Taliban does not want to alienate the villagers.

One example he discussed involved his being approached by the elders from a remote village in Afghanistan that was heavily infiltrated and controlled by the Taliban. Nevertheless, these elders requested that he help build a school in their village. Given the location, Mortenson was naturally skeptical of being able to do this, but he invited the elders to visit a school that he had built about 50 miles from their village.

When these elders met him at the school a few weeks later, they were all dressed in robes and turbans, and each was heavily armed with a machine gun. But, as he tells it in the book, when they saw the playground, the men dropped their guns on the ground and each man started playing on the swings and slides. And it was a sight to behold, with turbans flying in the wind and big smiles all over these stately and (for us) normally terrifying-looking men.

After a full hour and a half, Mortenson told them that it was time to stop playing and to address the issue at hand. So they sat down with him and soon invited him to come to their village to discuss the building of a school. Although it would normally be quite dangerous for a Westerner to go to that area, he later traveled there safely as their guest.

When Greg arrived the village elders unanimously agreed to his terms and requested a school — as long as it would have a playground! Mortenson agreed, but remained humorously concerned that the adults would be using the swings and slides so much that they might not be available for the children.

Before he left the village, Mortenson asked the chief elder (who is almost always the one who has the most silver in his beard) why they so badly wanted a school. The man responded that when he was 12 years old, the Soviets invaded the country.

So he was pulled out of school, and taught to hate and to fight, which he had been doing ever since. Thus he never really had a childhood. But now he not only wanted to make up for his own loss, he also wanted his children to have the childhood and education that he never had.

Our government actively solicits Greg Mortenson's advice, and, as a military veteran, he gives it openly and freely. But he goes out of his way not to accept any money from our government. If he were to do that, he would be seen as an arm or instrument of the government, and that would in effect terminate his effectiveness. And unfortunately, the government does not often follow his advice about developing relationships with the elders in the various villages.

But there is no reason why each of us cannot fight for freedom like Greg Mortenson — each in our own way. Obviously most of us cannot affect an entire world, but we can be effective in the smaller worlds that we do live in. And, like Greg Mortenson, we can begin by listening better to the people around us.

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of "A Voter's Handbook: Effective Solutions for America's Problems" (The Forum Press, 2010) and can be contacted at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or via his website at http://www.judgejimgray.com.

Canada has the right idea - by Judge Jim Gray

This past weekend I joined about 2,000 other people at a convention called Freedom Fest in Las Vegas. In many ways it was intensely discouraging. In many other even more important ways, it was encouraging and exhilarating.

The discouraging part dealt with our present economy and the forecasts for the immediate future. Many seemingly knowledgeable people stated forcibly that we cannot have a sustainable economic recovery with such large government spending and deficits and no gain in job creation. At the moment, our government spending is at the rate of about 39% of the gross national product. In addition, this year we are running a deficit of about $1.35 trillion, with estimates that next year it will be three to four times that number.

Simply stated, this government spending will put our economy and probably the world into a depression.

As a result, I came home and sold all of my mutual funds. At the moment they are not a good investment. Our own government underscores that fact, because it is making it increasingly difficult to move our assets out of the country. For decades we looked with disapproval at the governments of Third World countries that had adopted regulations punishing people for moving their assets abroad, but now our government is doing the very same thing. Most discouraging!

Furthermore, we heard that our government is trying to convert our nation's financial advisors and securities brokers into policemen. Under the so-called Patriot Act, which has been heartily embraced by the Obama administration, it is a crime for financial counselors to see something in our financial patterns that "even appears suspicious" without reporting it to the federal authorities. And, according to many of the counselors, this has little to do with terrorism or even drug money laundering, and instead it simply has to do with possible avoidance of taxes. This is the depth to which our government now has fallen.

So in the face of all of this reality, how could I emerge optimistic? Because it was reaffirmed, again and again, that freedom works! The free enterprise system, buttressed by private property rights, a fair and just judicial system for all, and a smaller, less intrusive, and less expensive government, can and will bring us out of these problems! These are what have made our country strong and great throughout our history, and they will do it again!

Canada is a magnificent example of this. Most of us think of Canada as being socialist, and it certainly still is in its health-care system. Furthermore Canada richly deserved that label in its entirety until the late 1990s. Between 1976 and 1995, the percentage of Canada's deficits went up from 35% to a full 78% of its GNP, government spending reached up to 53% of the nation's GNP, and welfare payments increased from 5% of the budget in 1980 to 10% in 1991. So all of this resulted in the Wall Street Journal running an article Jan. 12, 1995, that called Canada an honorary member of the Third World because of the weakness of (what the newspaper called) the Canadian Peso.

The article triggered enormous reforms in Canada. In view of the reality that one-third of every dollar paid in taxes was being spent simply on interest payments on the national deficit, concerned citizens and the media went over the heads of the politicians and sent their message directly to the people that the deficits must be strongly reduced. And the best way to accomplish this was to reduce government spending, and to stimulate the economy by reducing taxes. The people listened and responded.

As a result of pressure for these basic changes from the voters, within a few years all of the political parties in Canada were in favor of reducing the deficit — including the Liberal Party and the Socialist Party! The only debates were what spending and which taxes to reduce — and how much. Thus, since 1997 the federal workforce has been reduced by 14%, and all taxes have been reduced as well, including income, sales, capital gains and estate taxes. This combination of actions has reduced the spending of the Canadian government from 53% to about 39.7% in 2008. Our level is about 39%, but estimates are that by two years from now ours will be even higher, and theirs even lower.

Contrary to the warnings of the critics, even though government spending and taxes were materially reduced, government revenues remained the same. As a result, Canada now has one of the strongest economies in the world. The recession we have experienced in our country was appreciably milder and shorter in Canada, its job market has been strong, and its real estate has held its value. Canada's fiscal deficit for this year is projected to be about $33 billion, which, at less than 3% of its GDP, is considered manageable. On the other hand, our estimated federal deficit is $1.35 trillion, or about 9.2% of our GDP. But nevertheless there was much optimism at Freedom Fest because we know we can learn from our mistakes and from Canada's example, and we can turn things around by returning to our roots.

So basically we have two choices: We can either view these present circumstances with despair, or we can view them as a challenge. Most of the participants at the conference were not really worried about our future because throughout our history Americans have always risen to a challenge. In other words, all we need to do to regain our strength and our dreams is simply to repress our self-pitying and resentful sides, and return to being Americans. And I know that we will!

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of "Wearing the Robe: the Art and Responsibility of Judging in Today's Courts" (Square One Publishers, 2010), Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It, A Voter's Handbook, Effective Solutions To America's Problems and can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or http://www.judgejimgray.com. Judge Jim Gray is also currently offering his 25 years of experience on the bench to ADR Services in Orange County for Arbitration and Mediation services.

Look to Mexican example of crime prevention - by Judge Jim Gray

A crime prevention program being used in Mexico has reduced rape by 26%, family violence 34%, house burglary 22% and robbery 30%. These results are all the more impressive because the state of Sonora, just south of Arizona, is home to three violent drug cartels, and violent crime is increasing almost everywhere else around that country.

The program was founded by Santiago Roel, and when it was adopted by the state's governor they announced together that it would decrease the offenses they specified by 25%. In doing this, the program focused upon results or outcomes, which means crime statistics. But it did not measure all crimes, just the ones they specified, and it also measured the areas, days of the week, and even time of day in which those crimes were committed. So in effect they were able to produce a statistical profile of each selected crime.

Next, the program members formed a team with public officials and the police, and shared their findings, after which they implemented the doctrine of "focus, measure and decide." That means that the team members focused upon only the specified crimes so that they did not misspend their energy, measured the current statistics about just those crimes, and then decided the best approach to take for the prevention of those crimes. Once they reached that point, they only allowed themselves the option of making one of three decisions, which was to go ahead, re-think their conclusions, or ask for more information.

In most jurisdictions, police are trained only to be reactive, which means that they respond to reports of crimes, investigate them, and then locate and help to prosecute the offenders. In other words, those police are "fighting crime." But with this different approach, the police were trained to think preventively, and then to share the information they received where it would do the most good, which is with the potential victims in the most vulnerable areas.

They then added the media as members of the team, because it's the best way to share information with potential victims. And when the statistics were published widely by the media in those specific areas for all to see, the potential victims became the final members of the team.

In addition, the media became so interested in receiving so much current and accurate data, they soon started interviewing victims and seeking out their own crime prevention specialists, and publishing additional findings and recommendations.

After the media published the raw statistics for about a month, the manner of publishing was simplified to be much more readable and easily understood. The statistics were published in the form of one traffic light for each crime: red if the crime continued at the same level or greater than when the program began, green if it were reduced by the stated goal of 25% or more, and yellow if it were in between those two levels.

Family violence was the first area to result in a green light because family violence and rape can be decreased extensively with accurate information. For example, about 40% of all rapists are actually family members or "friends." Once that information was disseminated, potential victims began to see the warning signs for themselves and their family members much earlier and more clearly, and then they naturally took preventive actions.

The most valuable resource in crime prevention is information, and in most cases it has already been compiled. Thus this information is mostly available for free. One of the things the crime information showed them was that about 30% of the automobile thefts were committed in the parking lots of shopping malls. So when this information was published, both mall managers and the police increased security measures at shopping malls, and the drivers of the vehicles took additional preventive measures as well, all of which resulted in the number of automobile thefts being materially reduced.

Actually, people make decisions about crime prevention all the time, so this program simply sought to provide them with more accurate information which, in turn, helped them make more effective decisions. But unfortunately, today's world often works against providing accurate information. That is true because many public officials tend to hide information unless it contains good news.

In addition, many public officials consider the media to be their enemy when the news is not favorable, so making the media a part of their team is something they do not take to naturally. And finally, most public officials naturally shrink away from publicly setting difficult goals. So publishing a goal of a 25% reduction in specified crimes was not something they would naturally do.

But this program has demonstrably produced a material decrease in crimes, and no one can argue that this is a positive outcome. Without much difficulty, we could implement similar programs in our neighborhoods, and probably experience the same positive results.

You can learn more about Roel's "Applied Chaos Theory and Complex System Theory" by visiting http://www.prominix.com. And then perhaps you yourself can talk to your mayors, city council members and chiefs of police, because crime reduction is everybody's business.

http://www.judgejimgray.com

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of "Wearing the Robe: the Art and Responsibility of Judging in Today's Courts" (Square One Publishers, 2010), Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It, A Voter's Handbook, Effective Solutions To America's Problems and can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or http://www.judgejimgray.com. Judge Jim Gray is also currently offering his 25 years of experience on the bench to ADR Services in Orange County for Arbitration and Mediation services.

Beginning to see the light - by Judge Jim Gray

News flash! On June 22, the Chicago Sun-Times published an editorial recommending a radical change in our nation's drug policy. The editorial began by saying: "When will we accept that America's war on drugs is over – we lost – and it's time to get real about our drug laws?" Then the editorial continued: "Medical marijuana should be legalized. Pot more generally should be decriminalized. And the carnage in our streets and in Mexico begs that we rethink our nation's approach to the sale and use of more serious drugs as well."

People around the world and institutions like the Sun-Times are beginning to see the light, because the evidence of the failure of our policy of drug prohibition is all around us. Another of those institutions is the NAACP, whose president announced on this past June 29 that: "We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor organizations, law enforcement authorities, local municipalities, and approximately 56% of the public in saying that it is time to decriminalize the use of marijuana."

Why is all of this happening? Well, among other things more people are beginning to understand that many of the problems with youth gangs, such as shootings, drug sales, and even the recruitment of young people to that dead-end lifestyle, are directly traced to drug prohibition. Police can disrupt the drug trafficking of gangs only to a limited degree, but, they like Al Capone and other such thugs in the alcohol distribution business before them, can only really be put out of that lucrative business by a pronounced change in policy.

Prison overcrowding? We have filled our prisons with young men and women who have committed drug-related crimes – which the Sun-Times rightfully calls "a shameful waste of human potential and the taxpayers' money" – but, just like holding a bucket under a waterfall fills up lots of buckets with water, that act can do nothing to shut off the flow.

Foreign policy? In Mexico, where President Calderon has been waging his own war on drugs, the killing and corruption still continue to increase. The Sun-Times addresses those realities and cites the concern of many that Mexico is in danger of becoming a failed state because of them. Only the repeal of drug prohibition has the chance of saving our neighbor to the south from that fate.

So if all of these facts are becoming clear, why has this failed policy been allowed to continue? Because traditionally many people have harbored the idea that this policy, "for all of its defects," will keep drugs away from our children. But the bitter truth is that drug prohibition has made drugs stronger, cheaper and more available to our kids than any other system ever would have.

In addition to these other self-inflicted wounds, prohibition has materially increased cases of accidental drug overdose, unregulated drug poisoning, gang shootings, the killing of police and innocent victims caught in the crossfire, and AIDS infections and hepatitis contracted from dirty needles. And since we will never run out of people who are willing to take risks for selling small quantities of drugs for large amounts of money, the most effective way we can bring peace back to our streets, neighborhoods, and schools is to repeal the fundamental cause of the disruption, which is drug prohibition.

Furthermore, there are only so many resources allocated to the criminal justice system, so the "tougher" we get on drug crimes, literally the "softer" we get on the prosecution of everything else. Thus with a change away from drug prohibition, our law enforcement agencies will be able to divert scarce resources back to the underfunded investigation and prosecution of other crimes like robbery, rape, murder and fraud.

But there is even more! Today our country exports more cash to other countries because of the sales of illicit drugs than anything else, except oil. Forget all of our purchases of Toyota automobiles and Sony television sets, the bigger cash outflow is brought about by illegal drugs. And by the way, think of the reduced violence the repeal of drug prohibition will bring to countries like Colombia, Afghanistan, Thailand, Bolivia, Mexico and Nigeria, as well as the accompanying loss of profits and power to the drug lords and cartels there that today are thriving under our present policy!

Finally, the laws of drug prohibition have also resulted in a virtual prohibition of medical research on addiction and related problems. But with the recent liberalization of attitudes, medical science has begun to learn more about the properties of many of these presently illicit drugs. For example, in addition to its other perceived benefits, there is some indication that medical marijuana can also be helpful for autistic children. (For more information, please visit http://www.UF4A.org.)

You can help in this inevitable movement by supporting the "Tax and Regulate Cannabis Act of 2010," which will be on the November ballot and which would treat marijuana like alcohol for adults. Its most effective result will be to make marijuana less available for children than it is today by tightening the laws against selling or furnishing marijuana to people under the age of 21. (Of course today the illegal marijuana dealers don't ask for I.D.) And this measure expressly will not affect existing laws about driving under the influence or behavior in the workplace. Of course, it will also have the side benefit of taxing our state's largest cash crop, which will help our state's balance of payments problems.

Ironically, my generation of the 1960s has supported the punishment of our children's youthful drug indiscretions that takes away their freedoms, dignity, reputations, hope, Pell grants and otherwise bright futures for doing the very same thing that many of them did at the same age! Ask yourselves, do you think that incarceration would have helped the lives and careers of Presidents Bill Clinton or Barack Obama – or the Olympic career of swimmer Michael Phelps? No, although marijuana certainly has its harms, the most harmful thing connected to marijuana today is jail. You can help us in November to reduce many of those harms.

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of "A Voter's Handbook: Effective Solutions to America's Problems" (The Forum Press, 2010). He can be contacted at JimPGray@sbcglobal.net, or through his website at http://www.JudgeJimGray.com.

Living his masterpiece daily - by Judge Jim Gray

I want to add my voice and discuss the life and enduring legacy of Johnny Wooden. This great UCLA basketball coach, teacher and family man left us on June 4 at the age of 99, and I cannot think of anyone who better exemplified the way a life should be lived. One of his mottos was to "Make each day your masterpiece," and that is what he did.

When I was a freshman at UCLA in 1963, I happened to have a basketball class at the men's gym that ended at 3 p.m., which was the time the men's varsity team began its practices. I stayed so frequently to watch that later, when they closed the practices to the public, they still allowed me to remain.

The 1963-64 academic year was when UCLA won its first national basketball championship, with 30 wins and no losses, and if you think Walt Hazzard made some great plays during the games, you should have seen what he did during the practices. But the thing that really got my attention was the meticulous planning that obviously went into each practice session.

At the practices, Coach Wooden carried with him a small piece of paper that seemed to have everything organized down to the minute. In fact, he put into operation his motto that "Practice doesn't make perfect – only perfect practice makes perfect."

Coach Wooden would always be teaching during the practices, with such comments as "Be quick, but don't hurry." There was also a time in which one player made a good pass to a teammate for a layup, and Coach stopped the practice and observed that the player who received the pass had not acknowledged or thanked the one who had fed him the ball.

Then he said: "You cannot win a basketball game without cooperation. So thank your teammate when you receive it."

Coach Wooden did not particularly prepare his team to play against any specific opponent. Instead he prepared his players to play their own game as best they could, and let their opponents prepare for them. And never once did I hear Coach mention winning. Instead, he spoke about doing the best they could, and that would be good enough. Those were some of the great lessons in life that I learned from Coach Wooden.

His personal lifestyle reflected his teachings. John Wooden was one of the most celebrated coaches of all time, but he lived in a modest condominium in Encino. He won 10 national basketball championships, but before he kept any championship ring for himself, he made sure that each of his children and grandchildren had one. Throughout his career, which obviously included many pressure-filled moments, he was never heard to utter language stronger than "goodness gracious sakes alive!" (But that happened frequently, and his players knew they were in trouble when they heard it.)

About 10 years ago I sent a letter to Coach Wooden that explained my truly modest connection to the 1963-64 championship team, and asked him to diagram his famous and successful full court press and send it back to me so that I could put it on the wall in my chambers. Almost by return mail he did as I requested, and also sent along a signed picture, as well as a copy of his pivotally instructive "Pyramid of Success," which was his teaching system based upon such things as cooperation and personal responsibility. I framed those three mementos, and they will always have a position of prominence in my life.

Coach Wooden's devotion to his wife Nell, who was his high school sweetheart, was legendary, it has been reported. She died in 1985 after being married to the coach for 52 years, and Coach Wooden made no secret of his desire to rejoin her after his own death. Before each game he would look up to her in the stands and blow her a kiss. Many years later when he was asked if he would allow the UCLA basketball floor at Pauley Pavilion to be dedicated to him, he said yes, but only if it would be dedicated jointly to him and to Nell, and that her name should come first. That is the way it is to this day.

John Wooden was a competitor and is only one of three people to be selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and as a coach. (The other two are Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman.) In addition, Wooden made 134 consecutive free throws over a 45-game stretch while playing for Purdue, which shows his own individual attention to perfection.

But none of those achievements are as strong as his legacy of being a great teacher.

As he said: "There is nothing more satisfying for a teacher than watching his students make his lessons their own." In his teachings, Coach Wooden had many mottos that set forth his direction, such as "Learn as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die tomorrow;" "Make friendship a fine art;" "Drink deeply from good books;" and "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." His life set forth the results of putting those mottos into practice.

Honestly, with the passing of Coach John Wooden, my life will never be quite the same.

As he once said, "A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."

In various ways, he has taught and given correction to hundreds of thousands of people, including myself, and I don't think there is a resentment anywhere to be found. Just like when I lost my wonderful parents, my father just short of his 80th birthday, and my mother at age 84, I have no complaints.

My parents lived good, useful and full lives, but I simply miss them. And I feel the same way about Johnny Wooden. Thank you coach. Your life was truly a masterpiece, and I will miss you.

http://www.judgejimgray.com

Proactive approach to gangs needed - by Judge Jim Gray

Do you want to have a disturbing experience? Then read the book "This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang" by Samuel Logan (Hyperion, 2009). The word "mara" is Spanish for "gang," and the word Salvatrucha in El Salvador is slang for "street smart."

This juvenile gang was formed in 1980s Los Angeles by immigrants who were fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. But since many of the founders were former guerrilla fighters, they brought with them a cavalier attitude toward life and death. This in turn facilitated their use of extreme violence that even shocked other gangs in the area. But it also enabled MS-13 eventually to take control of large amounts of gang territory.

By 1996, the U.S. government adopted a policy of deporting MS-13 members back to their countries of origin, in many cases after serving jail or prison sentences here. Unfortunately in many ways that strategy backfired, because it resulted in the deportees using their knowledge, experiences and prison connections to form similar MS-13 gangs around the world.

Today there are estimated to be somewhere between 60,000 and 80,000 members of MS-13. They range all over our country from Alaska to New York, with strongholds in the D.C. area, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Charlotte, New Orleans and Knoxville, in addition to Los Angeles. They are also found in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Spain. All of this makes MS-13 almost as organized and all-pervasive as the Mafia.

The initiation process conveys the depths to which this gang has descended. Males mostly go through the initiation process of receiving the brutality of a full-on assault with unrestrained punches and kicks from the gang members for 13 seconds. The females, who make up about 1% of the membership, can either be initiated in the same way as the males, or they can be "sexed-in," which means that the girl is repeatedly raped by all of the males present until the males are satisfied. But this process also gives those young women almost sub-human status in the eyes of the other members.

The MS-13 makes its money the same way most other criminal gangs do, which is by being involved in extortion and dealing in human, arms and drug trafficking. But due to their reputation for gruesome violence, MS-13 members are also often hired by other gangs as contract killers.

The story of the book centers on a personable and bright young lady named Brenda Paz, who was sent by her parents from Honduras to live with her uncle in Texas. But since this uncle had little time or inclination to treat this "additional mouth to feed" with any affection or caring, she soon sought her "family support" elsewhere, which happened to be with the MS-13 gang.

The book told us that Paz was present when numbers of other crimes were committed, including a time when her boyfriend first beat severely and then killed a casual friend of hers. Eventually Paz was arrested by the FBI and questioned about the murder, and after a while she decided to become a government informant against the gang.

Unfortunately, it was obvious to everyone but Paz that being an informant was an ultra hazardous thing to do. So even though she was thoroughly warned, given a new identity and placed in safe quarters in a different state, she went back to her "friends" in the gang because of boredom and loneliness. But once the gang learned of her cooperation with the government, they lured her out to a lonely place, and brutally knifed her to death, notwithstanding the fact that she was pregnant.

Why am I using this column to discuss things like this with you? Because gangs like this can only thrive, or even exist, by default, which is to say that they fill the void when we don't show enough caring to provide positive role models for all of our children. The truth is that someone will always mentor our children, and if it is not people like parents, basketball coaches, boys and girls club leaders, or school teachers, children will be mentored by people like Charles Manson or gangs like MS-13. These malignant people are always out there recruiting, and when they get hold of children it doesn't take long to get them into a "Lord of the Flies" mentality, which can quickly result in the brutalities and initiation rites used by MS-13.

With this understanding, when I see in the news that people have rallied to raise enough money to preserve the "Hollywood" sign, but positive programs for youth mentoring and employment like Homeboy Industries instituted in gang territories in Los Angeles by Father Gregory Boyle die for lack of funding, I really get frustrated.

So we should address and be pro-active with these problems right now, because ignoring them will result in them becoming more severe. Thus if you want seriously to reduce human tragedies in our communities, as well as crimes and the costs of putting so many people in prison, help to support programs that provide positive mentoring to all of our children. You know where they are, and most of them desperately need our help.

Do you remember the comments printed a few weeks ago in this column from my friend Dr. Earl Fuller about the young men in Pelican Bay State Prison? They told him that they expected to be dead by the age of 25, so under those circumstances it really didn't matter what violence they inflicted upon others, or what violence was inflicted upon them. Why? Because they would be dead soon anyway. Is this the way we want our communities to be? I know that we can do better than that!

JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of "Wearing the Robe: the Art and Responsibility of Judging in Today's Courts" (Square One Publishers, 2010), Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It, A Voter's Handbook, Effective Solutions To America's Problems and can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or http://www.judgejimgray.com. Judge Jim Gray is also currently offering his 25 years of experience on the bench to ADR Services in Orange County for Arbitration and Mediation services.

The corrupting of traffic citations - by Judge Jim Gray

In many parts of the country, police have expressly been instructed to issue more traffic citations in order to generate revenue to counteract governmental budget deficits. For example, this has happened in the metropolitan Detroit area, where the state of Michigan reduced its revenue sharing with communities by $3 billion. More tickets have been issued there for driving as little as 5 mph above the speed limit, and traffic warnings have virtually become a thing of the past.

The reason for this action was stated succinctly by the president of the Police Officers Assn. of Michigan, who said: "When elected officials say 'We need more money,' they can't look to the department of public works to raise revenues, so where do they find it? Police departments."

Michael Reaves, the chief of police in Utica, Mich., explained the situation this way: "When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you're a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues."

An even more direct comment came from Sgt. Richard Lyons of Trenton, Mich., went like this: "They're trying to use police officers to balance the budget on the backs of drivers, and it's too bad. . . . We might as well just go door to door and tell people: 'Slide us $100 now since your 16-year-old is going to end up paying us anyway when he starts driving.' You can't blame people for getting upset."

In Virginia, where a campaign was launched under the title of "Operation Air, Land & Speed," state troopers were ordered to issue as many citations as humanly possible during one particular weekend along Interstates 95 and 81. That effort resulted in the issuance of 6,996 traffic citations. The published reason for the program was that the state had a big deficit, and it needed to find some quick sources of money.

According to California Watch and the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, our state has also undertaken similar fundraising programs. For example, these two groups reported that during 2009 alone, sobriety checkpoints in California yielded approximately $40 million in state fines and towing fees.

Similarly, the revenue in Los Angeles from red-light cameras doubled from $200,000 per month in 2007 to $400,000 per month by the end of 2009. And this occurred even though several studies had found that those cameras increase traffic collisions and injuries. How so? Because the presence of red-light cameras often results in people unexpectedly slamming on their brakes to avoid a citation, and this directly leads to more rear-end collisions. Nevertheless studies like that did not deter officials in the Washington state from choosing in 2005 to expand the red-light camera programs, because they produced revenues of $32 million.

The best way to reduce traffic collisions at crash-prone intersections is the lengthening of the yellow lights. But, of course, since that action does not put money into the bank accounts of local governments, those adjustments are seldom chosen. To the contrary, some of our state officials are now encouraging the addition of speed sensors to the existing red-light cameras. Why? Because state officials have estimated that those sensors could raise another $300 million for the state by the end of 2011.

Unfortunately, in some jurisdictions the institutional corruption brought about by these approaches has actually been compounded. For example, for a while the private companies that were involved in the enforcement of the traffic fines in Washington, D.C., actually got to pocket a portion of the proceeds, until citizen complaints resulted in that practice being terminated as a transparent conflict of interest.

This is not the purpose of traffic laws. In fact, the use of the Criminal Justice System in this manner constitutes an intolerable institutional corruption. Yes, it is appropriate to assess traffic fines, and it is also appropriate for the revenues received to be used to pay for public expenses. But the purpose of traffic laws is to keep us safe on our streets and highways, and no good purpose can be achieved by changing that focus.

Why is this so? I can think of four reasons. First, if traffic police are used as a revenue source, there will be a tendency to divert them onto traffic duties and away from other duties that would keep us safe.

Second, our way of government requires the good will of the people being "served" by that government. So if people start to see police officers as predators, that good will could be seriously and maybe even irretrievably compromised.

An 80-year-old woman from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., put that thought this way after she received a citation for running a red light that she insists she did not commit: "I told one officer that I used to tell my children that police officers are their friends — but with the (traffic citation) quotas, they are not any more."

Third, the more that police have a vested interest in securing convictions for traffic offenses, the more likely they would be to stretch the truth in their testimony in court. Not a good situation. And fourth, this approach further expands the role and intrusion of government, which will breed more cynicism and cause us to get even closer to the time that governments will tax us on every breath we take.

There certainly are more reasons as well. Do we want law enforcement officers, and even justice itself, to be seen as a means of simply gathering revenues? Please contemplate where a system like that could take us. Yes, most governments now have budgetary problems, but the costs of bringing in the criminal justice system to help alleviate them are simply too great a price to pay.

www.judgejimgray.com

Right to be 'Rule of Law' city - by Judge Jim Gray

OK, let's calm down and see these recent developments in Arizona and even the city of Costa Mesa for what they really are. They have little or nothing to do with racism and everything to do with legitimate frustration, and even desperation, about the entire situation with illegal immigrants (or undocumented workers, if you prefer). So from the standpoint of all good people, it is simply time for something affirmative to be done!

The first substantive column I wrote for this series was published on July 22, 2007, and dealt with this very subject ("Immigration system is ineffective"). What I said then is what I say now, and that is that I seldom get angry at illegal immigrants, and you shouldn't either. They are simply doing what our system so strongly encourages them to do, and they almost all come to our country for the same reasons our ancestors did: to seek better lives for themselves and their families.

The problem is that the federal government has all of the power in this area, makes all of the rules and does whatever enforcement that takes place, which is not very much. But the federal government mostly does not have to pay for the costs of illegal immigrants. Instead, most of the costs are paid by the state and local governments, and the school districts.

The irony is that it would not be hard at all to install a workable system, but neither the Republicans nor the Democrats actually want this to happen. Why not? Money and power.

Many powerful Republicans are anxious to retain the source of cheap labor that is furnished to them by illegal immigrants, and many powerful Democrats are anxious to have all of these people come into the country on the hope that they eventually will vote for Democrats. In the meantime, many good people on both sides of the issue are being severely punished under the status quo.

What is the resolution? Actually, it is relatively straightforward, and just a three-step process.

First, we must understand that this failed system will never be changed until the federal government has the incentive to change it. So the federal government must be required to pay for all of the governmental costs of illegal immigrants, including health care, education and incarceration.

Second, we, and no one else, should decide how many people can enter our country to work, and for what period of time they can stay. Then we should create a program that allows foreign workers to have something like an "orange" card that will allow them to work here legally during that specified period of time.

This would be much like our former Bracero Program, and would be in addition to our present resident alien and naturalization programs. The workers probably could not bring other members of their families with them, would pay reduced taxes on their income and would receive reduced services for things like health care while they are here. But, since they would be here legally, the workers would be able to obtain driver's licenses.

The third important component of this suggested program would be to use strict sanctions for all employers who in any way hire workers who do not have the proper identification. In effect, everyone in the country would either need a passport, birth certificate, green card or orange card to be able to be hired for a job, so the laws would be applied equally to everyone. Workers who have valid proof of eligibility would be able to work, live normal lives, and travel legally across our borders within the specified times. Those who do not have proper proof would increasingly have trouble finding work, so soon they would probably go elsewhere.

Holding people who hire undocumented workers responsible for their illegal acts would be the key, but it can be done without much difficulty. With today's computer chip technology, we should easily be able to create identification cards based upon people's fingerprints or even the irises of their eyes such that the cards could not be falsified. So there would be no excuse for hiring people who do not have proper identification. And once we have that workable system in place, we could also exclude permanently from admission to the country those non-citizens who persist in violating our laws.

It is time to recognize the legitimate frustration of our state and local governments that are hemorrhaging money to pay for the status quo, but without having any controls whatsoever over those costs. Of course, there will still be problems, but these changes will allow us in large measure to regain control of our borders, reduce dangers and injustices for non-citizens, seriously reduce the burden upon our taxpayers to support such large numbers of people who are here illegally, reinstitute and reinforce the rule of law, bring more employment income back "above the table," and begin to return everybody's lives to normal.

And then — and only after we have a system in place to control our borders — should we address the difficult and truly emotional and sometimes even wrenching issues of who receives "amnesty" and who does not. And in doing this we will have to take into account the large numbers of people all around the world who have applied to enter our great country through proper channels.

States like Arizona and cities like Costa Mesa should not be criticized for wanting our laws to be enforced. In fact, they should be criticized if they do not — and so should we all. So as the June and November elections approach, I suggest you support those candidates for federal elective office who will work to implement a law to require the federal government to pay for the governmental costs of its own failure to put into place a workable immigration system. It would not be hard to fix this terrible situation, so let's push them to do just that!



JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of "Wearing the Robe: the Art and Responsibility of Judging in Today's Courts" (Square One Publishers, 2010), Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It, A Voter's Handbook, Effective Solutions To America's Problems and can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or http://www.judgejimgray.com. Judge Jim Gray is also currently offering his 25 years of experience on the bench to ADR Services in Orange County for Arbitration and Mediation services.

Reality in Pelican Bay Prison - by Judge Jim Gray

A few weeks ago I devoted this column to the comments and observations of my friend Dr. Earl Fuller about his experiences while volunteering at the women’s prison at Chowchilla. The interest in the column was high, and I wanted to share two responses with you were posted on the Daily Pilot’s website.

The first one was: “Finally, some of the horror stories that those of us who have loved ones in prison will be told. I have been sending my son’s story to newspapers for over 2 years, but not one of them has printed it. Maybe now someone will listen to the truth and the people will understand that things are still not right in California.” The second was “What would I feel if a dear one were in prison? I am worried daily because I know someone in prison and he is sick and not being given adequate medical treatment.”

Because Fuller also volunteered to provide medical care at Pelican Bay Prison in Northern California, which houses the most dangerous male inmates, I asked him to give us his observations about the medical care these men received, and to compare it with that received at Chowchilla by the women. The following is a summary of what he told me.

The medical needs and wants of the male prisoners are really quite different than for the women, and I believe the difference is explained on a psychological basis. Women see medical care as a desirable and important adjunct to their life. Having regular visits and care by a physician confers both status and medicine, and both are considered to be a valuable commodity. The male prisoners have a different mindset because the need to see a doctor and take medicine is seen as a sign of weakness. Thus the male inmates try to limit or ignore illness until it can be ignored no longer.

The psychology also differs in another significant way. The male inmates all seemed to be convinced that they would be killed on the outside by the time they were 25 years old. So it didn’t really matter what you did or to whom you did it because you were soon going to be dead anyway. But when they were caught before they could be killed and they were sent away for 50 or 60 years to prison because of one or a series of horrible acts, they were stuck continuing to exist without really ever having learned how to live.

This resulted in most of the inmates existing almost in a vacuum. Their entire day involved being in their special violent offenders housing unit, with breakfast being brought in early, and then watching television until lunch. In the afternoon they were often handcuffed between two guards and taken down to the yard, and then put into a cage of 10-by-25 feet to run around outside for 90 minutes before they were returned to their cells. But this almost always means that when they are eventually paroled at age 45 or 50, they have no skills, no ambition and no abilities. As a result, they are poorly prepared to lead an independent existence, and often almost intentionally return to prison because that is the only place where they feel comfortable.

The prisoners whom I saw medically fell into several categories, which were those with battle injuries mostly from fighting that could not be ignored any longer, those with infections that were getting worse, and those who had contracted diseases. Mostly their sores, cuts and bruises healed quickly, as you would expect in these young people, and the infections were equally responsive, once the inmates allowed us to use medications.

The regularly established clinics ran reasonably well for those afflicted with chronic diseases like diabetes, lung diseases, hypertension and AIDS. But like with the women’s prisons, the need to keep everything fast and cheap was always present. The prisons medically could do a lot more for their inmates, but it takes money that does not seem to be available.

The process used to get them to us to be seen was interesting. First the inmate would back up to his cell door, whereupon a small barred window in his cell was opened and he would be handcuffed. Then he was walked between two guards in flak jackets to my clinic. If he had to wait, he was placed in a waiting box made out of metal and a metal screen, which was about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and also had a small built-in seat inside.

The inmate would be locked into the box until I could see him. He would then be re-handcuffed and brought to me, but I would have about four to six guards around me at all times. When I would ask to have the handcuffs removed so I could examine the patient, the guards wondered about my sanity. Generally, these inmates were not nice people, and some were overtly psychotic. Yet they still got sick and they still needed to be treated humanly, if only for our sake — if not for theirs.

Those are some of Fuller’s comments. What he did not address was the organized sexual abuse and violence that is often rampant in these facilities. But from my standpoint, all of his observations again strongly reinforce the need for us to provide positive mentors to all of our children — early and often — so that they do not get caught up in the hopeless “well, I’ll be dead anyway” lifestyle Fuller described.

So continue to make special efforts to support things like the YM and YWCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, Scouting organizations, and after-school sports and academic activities. As was stated a few years ago in this column, a “stitch in time” truly does help to keep our children from this fate.



JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of Wearing the Robe – the Art and Responsibilities of Judging in Today’s Courts (Square One Press, 2008), and can be contacted at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or via his website at www.judgejimgray.com .

Reject cynicism - vote - by Judge Jim Gray

One of the most gratifying things about writing this column is that people often respond, either on the Daily Pilot’s website or to me personally by e-mail.

I always respond privately to the e-mails, but after my column about my having attended the April 15 Tea Party rally in Santa Ana (“We have to rally for beliefs”), I received an e-mail from David Pearse of Costa Mesa that I wanted to share with you, because the beliefs he expressed are not limited to him.

Mr. Pearse’s message focused on my frequent reminders that “if our government isn’t working, we have no one to blame but ourselves.” His point was that what I say isn’t true.

“Our government is basically a mobocracy now,” he wrote. “The poor steal from the rich, and the politicians facilitate the process. The Constitutional Republic we started out with, with its checks and balances and its protections of life and property, no longer apply, as the government has, for the past 200 years, whittled away at these protections until they are now largely nonexistent. I mean, the government can now confiscate private homes in order to build shopping malls.”

Mr. Pearse finishes by saying “Jim, I’m proud to say I’ve never voted in my life. I have not bought into the system, as I know my vote is meaningless, just as your vote has always been meaningless. I am powerless to change the downward spiral in this country, as are you. It amazes me that you still seem to think we can turn things around in this country, when in fact we are doomed to become just another stagnant European type country with perennially high unemployment and perennially low growth.”

With regret, to some degree I believe he is right. But only to some degree. Even though I do not often vote for winning candidates or issues, I am deeply proud to say that I have voted in every election since I became eligible. I often brag about that fact when I speak to young people, and tell them that I hope they can make the same claim when they are my age.

But is all of this naïve — or simply an exercise to make myself feel better? I acknowledge that my pessimism on this subject has been growing over time, particularly with the thorough gerrymandering that both the Republicans and Democrats do jointly to keep elections from being competitive. Nevertheless, I persist.

It is worse for me because I resigned from the Republican party in 2003. I could no longer be a part of any organization that condoned, much less actively supported, the so-called Patriot Act, which I see as a direct attack on our civil liberties — and one that is not necessary to keep us safe.

I am now a Libertarian, and am trying to grow that party’s strength and influence in an effort to promote more liberty and responsibility in our country. But that means that, as a third-party voter, my vote often is diluted below the many votes of those who are still members of the majority parties. (And by the way, if Proposition 14 passes it will destroy third parties in California, so please vote “No.”) Nevertheless, even considering all of these circumstances, I am not where Mr. Pearse is, and hope I never will be.

And then there is the fact that every vote has mattered. What about the votes in Florida in the Bush vs. Gore presidential election of 2000? And what about large numbers of more local elections for political offices and issues, which are sometimes really close? How can anyone justify cynicism in those elections, even if that cynicism may apply elsewhere?

We must also discuss the alternatives. Speaking for myself, I simply will not abandon what is great in our country so that we can become socialistic like France and Greece, or capitalistic police states like Singapore and Saudi Arabia.

Simply stated, we can either do our literal best and continue to affect what we can, or we can withdraw from the process and “go to the beach.” Our great country is still the beacon of hope to most of the world. Its soul is our freedoms, and its strength is derived from free markets and free choice. How can we so easily abandon what has made our country great?

Mr. Pearse raises many valid points, but so what? His withdrawal will never be the correct thing to do as long as I and millions of other Americans continue to be an active part of the political system. What is your opinion about this? If you still hold onto these hopes for our country and posterity, what are you doing to move us back toward liberty and responsibility? As Frank Sinatra sang, are you a ram that keeps butting that dam? In the song, the ram was eventually successful — and sometimes we are too.

Yes, sometimes our heads hurt from continually butting the dam, but in several places we are making progress. As just one example, we Californians can vote this November on the critically important initiative to repeal marijuana prohibition by treating cannabis like alcohol for adults: taxing it, and holding people accountable for their actions instead of what they put into their bodies. Will your vote make any difference? Yes, it will! That vote will probably be close.

So I publicly ask Mr. Pearse to reassess his position, and I ask the same of anyone else who has similar thoughts. Register to vote, educate yourself about the candidates and the issues, support those who are important to you, and join us sometimes idealistic and maybe even naïve people and do what lots of veterans have given their lives to give us the sacred opportunity to do: vote. Sometimes your vote will matter a great deal, and, besides, at least you will know that you tried.



JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of “Wearing the Robe — the Art and Responsibilities of Judging in Today’s Courts.” He can be contacted at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or www.judgejimgray.com .

Prisons lacking proper care - by Judge Jim Gray

During my time as a trial court judge, I heard many disturbing stories about substandard medical treatment being given to the inmates in our prison system, and recently the federal courts have begun threatening to take action about the situation.

So in an effort to educate myself, I asked Earl Fuller, a good friend of mine and a retired medical doctor who had volunteered to provide medical services in the women’s prison at Chowchilla, if he would share with me some observations about his experiences while he was there.

He agreed to do so, and I am passing his comments along to you as indications about some of the conditions that existed in 1996 that the federal courts would probably have been hearing about.

Why do they care, or why do we? Because one of the responsibilities of a just and moral society is to protect and take care of everyone who is in our custody, whether they be Charles Manson or Jack the Ripper.

The following is a paraphrasing of Fuller’s comments.

You asked me to write about some of my experiences as a prison physician. I retired as a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist after 32 years in Fullerton.

My first position was at the California Women’s Prison in Chowchilla, Calif., and I was there in the spring or early summer of 1996 as a relief physician who took over for regular doctors on leave.

My first assignment was to a “yard” that housed several barracks of inmates. The women were not allowed to have prescription drugs in their possession, so they were dispensed by guards in the morning, noon and evening. Nevertheless, a certain amount of illegal drugs was always available. The inmates also made a horrible home brew called “prunella,” which caused some drunkenness after fermentation.

I was faced with a medical potpourri that was fascinating and would have supplied any medical school with more pathology than the students ever could have handled.

For example, I would see at least four patients a day with hepatitis A, B and C. Generally when a person has all three viruses it is as a result of unclean needles from injecting drugs.

There would also usually be at least four women with syphilis, two women with treated tuberculosis, and large numbers with diabetes, hypertension and arthritis.

Throughout my time there, it was my experience that the prison system’s main financial goal was to house these women as inexpensively as possible. Of course, medicine could be an irritating demand on the budget, so almost any request that could be safely denied was.

I also remember an inmate who requested long socks. She was a rather large woman and was fitted with leather high-top shoes because they were the only ones that fit her.

Unfortunately, the supply room only had short socks that would not come to the tops of her shoes, so her ankles had been rubbed raw and were bleeding from contact with the leather.

She cut the short socks to cover her ankles, but then her uncovered instep rubbed so much that it also became raw. I made four requests for appropriate socks, but they were never granted by the time I left.

Another deeply disturbing expense-saving idea I encountered was not to treat hepatitis until the liver enzymes began to rise, suggesting that the entire liver was beginning to fail.

The liver is a wonderful organ that keeps on functioning until it is almost destroyed.

So when the enzymes are rising because of hepatitis, there is probably less than 10% of the liver remaining.

When faced with the first signs of liver failure, I began treatment immediately. Unfortunately treatment is expensive, as uncomfortable as chemotherapy, and time consuming for the nursing staff.

This made me unpopular with the staff, but medically it was necessary to save as much of the liver as possible or a liver transplant would be the only option.

During my second month, I was moved to do admitting histories and physicals on new inmates. I couldn’t do much but diagnose in this position, because treatment was left to the other physicians. But I do remember talking with a woman who was sent back to prison for violating parole. She said she was riding in a car with her boyfriend when the police stopped them and found a half-smoked marijuana cigarette on the floor in the back seat.

That resulted in her parole being revoked and her being placed back in prison.

Maybe she lied to me, but if not we are paying $35,000 a year to keep her there.

Finally, I can tell you that significant numbers of inmates are in custody for drug problems. But during my entire time working in the prisons, I do not remember seeing any drug treatment, counseling or classes to help the addicts.

We seem only to be punishing them to nobody’s advantage, which is terribly expensive for the taxpayers, and everybody else.

Those are some of Fuller’s comments. So let me ask you. If you or people you hold dear were in prison with untreated failing livers, or feet being rubbed raw for lack of higher socks, how would you feel? What would you do?

Next week we will talk about this issue some more.



JAMES P. GRAY is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of “Wearing the Robe – the Art and Responsibilities of Judging in Today’s Courts” (Square One Press, 2008), and can be contacted at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or via his website at www.judgejimgray.com .