Day of the Outer Range

 

Another tree fell in the neighborhood, knocking out power for about an hour. There was no storm, no wind to speak of, no rain. The tree just apparently decided it was time to fall over, and took down some power lines on its way. Or as we say in Contemplative Stoicism, the tree manifested its potential to become fallen timber.

With nothing else to do in my darkened home, I went outside to take a first-hand look at the situation. The power company was already on the scene with a cherry-picker truck to replace the lines. Ol' Charlie, a neighbor and probably the oldest remaining resident of the 'hood, was outside too, surveying the damage.

"Can you believe they're gonna put Trump in jail?," was the first thing he asked me.

I don't think Trump is facing imminent incarceration, despite his guilty verdict on 34 felonies. First, these are all white-collar, generally victimless crimes. It can be argued that the voters and American democracy were the victims, but no one was physically or financially harmed by the crimes. Also, jail time is often waived for elderly defendants, and Trump is 77 years old. 

On the other hand, Michael Cohen did time for the same crimes. Trump shows no remorse for his actions, was contemptuous of the judge, the jury, the witnesses, and the entire legal process. All of these are among the reasons for which probation is usually denied.

I'm glad I'm not Judge Juan Marchand. It's a tough decision to make, and he's bound to be criticized and second-guessed for whatever he chooses. 

"I don't think he's going to jail," I told ol' Charlie, "but I'm glad to see he's finally held accountable to the same standard of justice as everyone else." 

Shocked, ol' Charlie asked "How's that justice?" I think that he thought I was a fellow MAGA, probably due to my age and the fact that I've always been friendly to ol' Charlie in our previous sidewalk encounters.

"Trump's doing everything he can to save the American economy," ol' Charlie claimed. "And now, they put him in jail, the whole country is going to go to hell." He went on, apropos of  nothing, to make a remark about Vice President Kamala Harris I'm not going to repeat here.  

Reflexively, I started to ask, "What has Trump ever done to save the economy . . ." and then caught myself. Fact-based, logical argument gets one nowhere in these matters. Ol' Charlie's in the MAGA camp, and I'm Antifa, if anything. But after years of living in Georgia and having to get along with coworkers and clients of all political orientations, I've learned how to talk with these people, and usually I can find some point of common agreement. 

So instead of arguing, I put my hand on ol' Charlie's shoulder. "My friend," I said, "I'm not a Trump person. In fact, I hate the man. But I don't think he's going to go to jail." I didn't explain my reasons why. 

"But if it were up to me, well, remember that picture from Vietnam of the general shooting the suspected spy point-blank in the head?  That's what I would like to see. Put Trump in handcuffs, march him in front of the t.v. cameras, put a gun to his temple, and bang! Case closed." 

So much for trying to find common cause. For the record, I don't believe in extrajudicial, summary executions, even in Trump's case. I was just trying to shock ol' Charlie. And it worked. He sputtered a little bit, but before he could get out another racist, hateful Fox News talking point, a third neighbor came walking up to look at the tree damage. We both, ol' Charlie and I, immediately shifted our attention and conversation to explaining to that third neighbor what had happened and the power company's estimated time for power to be restored.

I walked off with the third neighbor as ol' Charlie retreated back into his house. I don't think we're friends anymore, but no loss there. 

By the time I got to my driveway, a fourth neighbor, a die-hard, woke progressive like me, came jogging by.  We had a long talk about all manner of things, and I told him about my encounter with 'ol Charlie. The jogger agreed  that 'ol Charlie's just a relic of Georgia's past, hopelessly confused and out-of-touch with these modern times, and fed a constant stream of disinformation by Fox News and Russian propaganda to keep him in the dark. Poor Charlie.

By the time I got back in my house, the power was back on.