Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

The military charges that back in 2002, a certain Mohammed Jawad tried to kill two of our soldiers in Afghanistan by throwing a grenade at them. Mohammed, 16 years old, was captured and flown to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mohammed has been locked up in solitary confinement since that time, not yet charged with any crime. (Nor has he been provided, until recently, access to counsel or any recourse to challenge his detention.)

No doubt, the gallant administrators and soldiers at Guantanamo (once our executive branch suspended habeas corpus and article three of the Geneva Conventions for the detainees) found it amusing to engage in alternative interrogation tactics while attempting to garner intel from this terrorist kingpin.

Did Mohammed Jawad throw that grenade? Probably. It is a war over there, after all. The salient point is that he was only a kid and if he was attacking us, we should have shot him then. Or, at least, captured him, interrogated him and then tried him for murder. Holding him without end should not have been an option. Is there any actionable intelligence that can be gathered from a teenage combatant who has already spent many years alone in prison?

Let me be clear, unlike the ACLU, I do not bristle at these words from the president, “As a matter of policy the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely, and to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva.” It is obvious that there are some very bad people who wish the US much harm. Because of that, I do not argue that there is never a case for the use of less-humane treatment to extract vital, timely intelligence. However an acknowledgment that such situations might conceivably exist is not the same as a wholesale torture permission slip. Those incidents ought to be the of the extremely rare, ticking-bomb variety.

Enter Maj. J. R. David Frakt, Jawad’s newly military-appointed attorney. Frakt’s closing argument (June 19th, 2008) in favor of dismissal of Mohammad Jawad’s case contains some well crafted arguments. Here is an excerpt:

America is a nation founded on a reverence for the rule of law. We should never forget that when we take an oath to enlist or be commissioned as an officer in the United States Armed Forces, we do not swear to defend the United States, we swear “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” The Oath of Office for the President contains similar words: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Tragically, under the undeniably heavy pressure to defend Americans from terrorist attack, some of our military and civilian leaders lost sight of their obligation to defend the Constitution as well.

Under the Constitution all men are created equal, and all are entitled to be treated with dignity. No one is “undeserving” of humane treatment. It is an unmistakable lesson of history that when one group of people starts to see another group of people as “other” or as “different,” as “undeserving” as “inferior,” ill-treatment inevitably follows. In the Global War on Terror generally and in the detention camps of Guantanamo especially, the detainees were seen as “terrorists,” as “the worst of the worst” something less than human, and were treated accordingly. After six and a half years, we now know the truth about the detainees at Guantanamo: some of them are terrorists, some of them are foot soldiers, and some of them were just innocent people, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the detainees at Guantanamo have one thing in common — with each other, and with us — they are all human beings, and they are all worthy of humane treatment. We should also never forget that no one in Guantanamo has been convicted of a single crime and that even in these deeply flawed military commissions, they are entitled to a presumption of innocence…

February 7, 2002. America lost a little of its greatness that day. We lost our position as the world’s leading defender of human rights, as the champion of justice and fairness and the rule of law. But it is a testament to the continuing greatness of this nation, that I, a lowly Air Force Reserve Major, can stand here before you today, with the world watching, without fear of retribution, retaliation or reprisal, and speak truth to power. I can call a spade a spade, and I can call torture, torture.

Today, Your Honor, you have an opportunity to restore a bit of America’s lost luster, to bring back some small measure of the greatness that was lost on Feb 7, 2002, to set us back on a path that leads to an America which once again stands at the forefront of the community of nations in the arena of human rights.

Sadly, this military commission has no power to do anything to the enablers of torture … All you can do is to try to send a message, a clear and unmistakable message that the U.S. really doesn’t torture, and when we do, we own up to it, and we try to make it right.

I have provided you with legal authority for the proposition that you have the power to dismiss these charges. I can’t stand before you and say that you are legally required to do so. But I can say that that it is a moral imperative to do so, and I ask that you do so.

Please know that I don’t wish to cast aspersions on our patriotic festivities– to the contrary– I’m convinced that this great country is what she is today, in part, because of a persistent willingness to face and resolve the issues which confront her. It is through candid, honest and intelligent dialog that change can be effected. Far from a liberal cynic, I am very proud to be American.

Click for the full text of Major David Frakt’s closing arguments.

The response from the last three monthly photo rambling posts was good: March Photo Ramblings, April Photo Ramblings and May Photo Ramblings, so here are a few random pics from this month, or at least from the first half of the month.

Can you guess which picture is my favorite?

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Besides being a naturalist, geologist, and troublemaker, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was also a prolific letter writer. He exchanged over 14,500 letters with nearly 2000 people during his lifetime — with people like the geologist Charles Lyell, the botanists Asa Gray and Joseph Dalton Hooker, the zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley and the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.

Not content with just letters, Darwin also jotted down his thoughts in notebooks. From those writings he published the Journal Of Researches (1839), The Descent Of Man (1871), The Zoology Of The Voyage Of HMS Beagle (1838-43) and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Origin Of Species.

Cambridge University has digitized some 50,000 pages of text of notes and letters and books from Darwin and made them all available online. At this very moment, you could be downloading the text of the Origin of Species.

Among all these scribblings, exists a small scrap of paper upon which Charles listed his pros and cons of getting married. The year was 1838 and Charles, 29, already back from his five year world voyage on the Beagle, was contemplating marriage to his cousin Emma Wedgwood, an attractive woman nine months his senior. Fiercely logical, Charles produced a cost-benefit analysis of the situation. He divided the paper into two columns, “Marry” on the left, and “Not Marry” on the right and this is what he wrote:

Marry

• Children (if it Please God)
• Constant companion (and friend in old age) who will feel interested in one
• Object to be beloved and played with. Better than a dog anyhow
• Home, & someone to take care of house
• Charms of music and female chit-chat
• These things good for one’s health—but terrible loss of time
• … it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, and nothing after all—No, no, won’t do
• Imagine living all one’s day solitary in smoky dirty London House
• Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire and books and music perhaps
• Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Great Marlboro Street, London

Not Marry

• Freedom to go where one liked
• Choice of Society and little of it
• Conversation of clever men at clubs
• Not forced to visit relatives and bend in every trifle
• Expense and anxiety of children
• Perhaps quarreling
• Loss of Time
• Cannot read in the evenings
• Fatness and idleness
• Anxiety and responsibility
• Less money for books etc.
• If many children forced to gain one’s bread (But then it is very bad for one’s health to work too much)
• Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment and degradation into indolent, idle fool

He studied the list before concluding, “Marry, Marry, Marry Q.E.D.” Less money for books, fatness and idleness and loss of time notwithstanding, Darwin proposed to Emma and they were married a year later.

That’s the question I asked Dr. Stephen Covey tonight. His answer, given with a big smile, “being married to my wife, Sandra.” Then he paused, his expression quickly changing, “She is having back surgery this Wednesday, will you include her in your prayers?” I assured him I would.

I chatted briefly with Covey after a talk he gave on “Six Events: The Restoration Model For Solving Life’s Problems.” He spoke about four basic human needs (Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy), reminded us that life is short and provided two questions for conflict resolution:
Q. Would you be willing to search for a solution that is better than what either of us has proposed?
Q. Would you be willing to agree to a simple ground rule? No one can make his or her point until they have restated the other person’s point to his or her satisfaction.

The A/V guy was not having a good day and the video projector for Covey’s presentation refused to function properly. Still, Covey had all of his slides memorized and was able to recite them effortlessly. That’s pretty impressive. Strong work Dr. C.

Several years ago I was reading through a hymnal and remarking that nearly every song contained unfamiliar words. A few days later, with the help of my brother, I identified all of those words and set out looking them up in an 1830 period dictionary, the OED and Webster’s Unabridged in order to create a Hymn Dictionary. I typeset the book and sent the manuscript off to LDS publishers.

To my dismay, all the publishers were very uninterested in my idea. I’ve come to very much dislike publishers. I’m sure there is a special place in, well you know where, for those people.

With the advent of micropublishing, the time has come to at last finish the project. For that, I’d like your input on the title:

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Unlike at their European locations, the Catholic church seems alive and well here in Salt Lake City– The Cathedral of the Madeleine was filled to capacity this Easter morning. We found our seats near the front and sat down to watch. The building has violet, teal, olive yellow and burned orange vaulted ceilings and is ringed with tall columns which spider into the domes. Multicolored light streams in through biblical depictions in the high stained glass windows. Partially obscured behind a wooden panel, an orchestra (including blazing French horns and a tympani) alongside a choir (with spine-tingling contra-sopranos), filled the interior with celestial music giving the impression of omnipresent angelic visitors, praising the heavens in Latin plainsong recitations.

What remains is a devotion to the good news message of someone who lived twenty centuries ago, but whose story continues to inspire and change lives to this day. Yes, he was not just an inspired man. Yes, he worked miracles. And yes, that Easter morn, after three days in the grave, he rose again.

It was a quiet week in the small town of St. Francis. Well, at least it started off that way.That was until old man Phillips, slowly peddling his bicycle, noticed his back tire was flat. Being cautious in his old age, Mr. Phillips guided his bicycle off the road to a spot under the long branches of the weeping willow near Mirror Lake that he and Mrs. Phillips used to frequent in the early days of their marriage. He thought a lot about his wife since her passing a year ago; the thoughts of her seemed to only increase with the passing days — his longing for her becoming ever more painful. As Mr. Phillips leaned down to examine the bicycle tire, he heard a loud gurgle coming from the lake. He looked upwards towards the sound, squinting in the morning sun, barely making out the silhouette of an SUV sinking slowly beneath the water.

I wrote that two days ago, or at least every other line. A friend and I were playing the classic alternating sentence writing game. I think it turned out pretty good so far. I’ve been meaning to write a book of short stories and perhaps this latest amusement of mine will be just the impetus I need. The goal of writing (and publishing) such a book even made it onto my new year’s resolutions list, though admittedly, so too did “Develop a convincing English accent”, “Work at McDonalds for a week” and “Buy 1 acre of land and dig a 100 ft deep hole with a backhoe in one month.” It’s not that I wouldn’t like to do each of those, it’s just that, with life the way it is, 1/6th of the year has already elapsed with not a single goal accomplished. How are your goals coming along?

Recently my friend Chelsea and I came up with a list of questions to ask someone you already know in order to get to know them better. Here’s what we came up with:

• Do you believe that “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right”?
• What do you think is your best quality?
• What is something that really bugs you?
• Are you good at saving money?
• Do you like making things?
• Do you believe that people are mostly good or mostly bad?
• How much is too much to spend on a car?
• Do you recycle?
• What would you do if your spouse started gaining a lot of weight?
• How do you feel about the dentist?
• How do you feel about getting shots?
• If polygamy were reinstated would you be interested?
• How much of a risk taker are you?
• What do you think about gambling?
• Do you have any regrets in life?
• What do you think about Walmart?
• If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be and what would it be of?
• How do you feel about body piercings?
• What are your thoughts on marrying a person of a difference race?
• What are your opinions on: waking up early, staying up late, performing, board games, ice skating, wives/mothers working, his and her duties around the house, amusement parks, sky diving, kissing on first dates, Spandex, motorcycles, long distance relationships, credit cards, cooking with wine, living in a foreign country, tattoos, French kissing, Orange juice not from concentrate, diamonds, artificial Christmas trees, card games, politics, homeschooling, herbal remedies, abortion, the death penalty, ultimate fighting, caffeine, plastic surgery, keeping a journal, rated R movies, swearing and giving money to beggars?
• If you HAD to have one cosmetic procedure, what would it be?

What did we miss?

I was flipping through the channels the other day when I landed on a news station (CNN or MSNBC or CNBC, I don’t recall which) talking about Christian-based businesses. And low and behold, they began talking about the success of Chick-Fil-A.

Now, I’m not a huge fast food junkie, but the guys over at RemedyMD really enjoyed their weekly Chick-Fil-A excursions. I usually tagged along and I found the fare to be tolerable. What I didn’t know is that Chick-Fil-A is not like most other fast food joints. It’s privately held, profitable and enjoys a high employee retention rate (3% leave annually vs 50% in the industry.) It’s also closed on Sundays and the official company motto is to glorify God. Chick-Fil-A also runs Winshape, a non-profit foundation and there is voluntary Monday religious service at its headquarters. Chick-Fil-A’s founder, Truett Cathy even claims he received divine inspiration for the Chick-Fil-A’s signature chicken sandwich recipe. Seemingly more concerned about helping their fellow man get ahead than pure cash flows, Chick-Fil-A franchisee fees are comparably incredibly cheap– just 5k. (Wendy’s is 25k, McDonalds is 45k, Burger King is 50k.)

Knowing this information doesn’t make me like their chicken sandwiches any better, but it’s interesting to see a Christian run business thriving in a secular dog-eat-dog market environment.