Sorry all...

Haven't been around much lately. Maggie and Robin know already, but by way of FYI for the rest of you (or maybe TMI, pick your acronym), my father passed away at the end of June. Been busy taking care of arrangements and stuff. My thanks to everyone who was a moral boost through the past couple of years- it's been a test at times. Now, on to the next test, I suppose.

This morning, he was in his home (in California). He couldn't find his ashtray- the one he had in his lap, the one he had JUST set a lit cigarette down in. It had to be somewhere, but it just wasn't around. Never mind that hospitals don't generally allow smoking.

"Can you believe how many people there are in this house?" he asked. House? Yes, he wasn't in a hospital, he was at his home, relaxing.

He's obsessing on Diane Green. Yesterday morning, he was insistent that I call and cancel his flight out to New Jersey. At lunch, he told Jason to cancel Diane's flight to Minnesota. In the afternoon, he told me two stories- one of how Diane and Carol both visited him in the hospital, and that Diane stayed for a day... then later, he told how Diane's flight to Minnesota was cancelled midway, somewhere over Altoona, PA, and how she was miffed, having to take a bus with 17 people all the way back to New Jersey. This morning, he told me how thankful he was that he had flown out to New Jersey, and spent the week there with Diane.

I'm torn. I don't think I should contact Diane, because that is long since in his past. But I'm not sure... maybe she'd want to know. I know that I've spent the past couple of days calling his brothers and sister- family most of whom haven't made any effort at making contact for the past year and a half (and probably longer than that).

He thinks he's in California, circa 1991 (or maybe 1983). And he doesn't want to move to that "damn cold hell" - Minnesota.

I stroked his hair, and asked softly, "Do you want the bad news yet?"

Noone reads this, but should anyone come across it, my dad is back... extremely frail, damaged, and maybe not whole... but no longer empty.

And I don't know if this is a good thing or not.

Shells

The body that lays in the hospital bed is not my father. The tubes that pour life into that shell must be feeding and breathing someone else. That can't be him. I know my Dad. I feel my Dad. I see it in his smile, his eyes, his attitude, even in his gestures.

This unresponsive shell is empty- has nothing of the spark that is my father. This body doesn't fight back, it doesn't show the wry sarcastic bent. It is being watered and fertilized like a houseplant. My father would never allow himself to be treated like this. He would yell at the nurses simply because his feet were cold, and what sort of an institution would keep their rooms so cold. He'd blame Minnesota. He'd blame the black aides, who clearly have it out for him. If he were in California, he'd blame the Filipinos. Always someone else to blame, always something else to complain about.

Stick a pin in this shell, and a toe flinches slightly. That's not my dad.

Show me the MRI charts- maybe he's hiding somewhere in that digital data. Show me the EEG's- he likes to play up his sickness. He's got to be somewhere, but that shell in the bed doesn't have him. Give me the two pennies to put on those eyes... roll that corpse into the corner. Black humor when my father was contained in that shell. Now simply the best thing to do with that vacant body.

Want me to cry over that body? Anger, Bargaining, Depression... what were all those Kubler-Ross stages? None of them applicable, because that body isn't my dad. I've cried, to be sure, but not because of what I've seen. I cry because of what I don't see. My dad is gone, and it's only taking a while for that empty shell to realize. The priest asks if it's an emergency- do they need to perform the Last Rites within the hour? No, it's not, I answer. It can wait.

I don't tell him that it's already too late. My dad is already gone. They will only be anointing an empty shell.

What if John McCain can't actually BE President?

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.  Section I, Article II of the US Constitution

Despite his age, I think it's safe to say that John McCain was not alive at the time of the Constitution's adoption.  But is he a "natural born Citizen"?

Born August 29 (hey- another Virgo!), 1936 at Coco Solo Air Base, John Sidney McCain III was born in the Panama Canal Zone to US parents.  There's no doubt that he is a citizen, and has been since he was born.  But that "natural born" tag does not have a real clear definition, and since the only instance of the distinction in the ENTIRETY of US law is the qualification for President and Vice-President, it hasn't had many cases tested against it.

In 1790, the Congress passed "An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization", providing the process for residents to become citizens.  Included was this line:

"the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens" 

This followed the English tradition (going back to 1350) of granting the same rights of inheritance to children of British subjects born overseas, then further in the early 18th century, of expressly declaring those children to be natural-born subjects of the crown. 

Five years later, this law was repealed, and a new act for naturalization passed.  The relevant clause now read:

the children of citizens of the United States, born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, shall be considered as citizens of the United States"

No longer are the children considered "natural born."  This could easily have been an oversight on the authors, but based on this phrasing, the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott that citizenship deriving from this clause was a form of "naturalization."  They didn't rule on the question of whether such a person would be eligible for the Presidency, since they were instead ruling on whether a slave was a person or property, but a citizen is either citizen "by birth" or "by law" (naturalized), and the implication, if read, would infer these children would not be "natural born citizens."

So, thanks to Dred Scott and, oh yeah, the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, overruling Dred Scott and giving a definitive answer:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

So, that's it:  Either you're born in the United States, or you're naturalized.

In case this point doesn't seem clear, United States vs. Wong Kim Ark, a case ruling on whether a child born on US soil to foreign nationals is a citizen, provides this telling comment in the dissent, saying that the ruling would have the effect that:

"...the children of foreigners, happening to be born to them while passing through the country, whether of royal parentage or not, or whether of the Mongolian, Malay or other race, were eligible to the presidency, while children of our citizens, born abroad, were not." Chief Justice Fuller, dissenting.

Note that because this was a dissent, it does not hold any value as a ruling itself, but at least suggests (strongly, I think) that citizenship granted by statute at birth is NOT the same as "natural born" citizenship.

So, is a US air base, in the Panama Canal Zone, part of the United States?

Legally, the Canal Zone was Panamanian territory under exclusively American control, but not actually incorporated into the United States itself.  So, no- the Canal Zone was not the United States.  Nor is a military base on foreign soil, United States- a point that the conservative basta... I mean... members of the Supreme Court seem quite clear to point out when they rule on Guantanamo. 

So, John McCain was not born in the United States.

He was automatically naturalized, by statute, at birth.

 

John McCain can not be President.

 

 

And no, I don't expect anyone to pay attention to this, either.

My sister rocks, even with fishlips

So, last weekend, my sister flew into town to visit Dad. She stayed with us, and while we made a couple of pilgramages to see the Old Man, a lot of the weekend was a "bonding moment" with her. She flew in Friday night, and back out on Sunday. A kamikaze visit, to be sure, but she had the three-day weekend, and found a GREAT airfare (~$200!), so can't complain about that.

After I dropped her off, Sunday night, I smiled the whole drive home, almost in disbelief. Could it actually have happened- a visit from a family member that DIDN'T drain me out, or stress me out? It was such a comfortable time, she is so easy-going and no-stress that I can only attribute it to her mom, Pam.

We managed to fit in a number of things while she was here, but since the Sculpture Garden is maybe my favorite place in the Cities, I had to take her there. And here she is, doing her best impersonation of a leaping carp. Oh, and my goofball boy sneaking into the shot for good measure.






My wife isn't the only one with a uber-cool sister...

Lastly, here's the two of us with the progenitor...

14 years in the House of Representatives.
Ambassador to the United Nations.
Secretary of Energy.
Two-term governor of New Mexico.

Consistently rated as one of the most fiscally responsible Democratic governors in the nation (Imagine the words "fiscally responsible" tied to a Democrat!)

Negotiated with Sudanese officials to secure the release of National Geographic journalist, Paul Salopek.

Richardson simply never brokered an impressive resume into the cult of personality that the modern race for the President has become. Hillary has a saying, "You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose." Richardson simply never found the lyrics to his campaign.

Ah well... How's Paul's campaign doing, I wonder??