As is so often the case, history is decided by the slimmest of margins.  One man, with one voice, seated atop the highest court in the land made one decision and changed the course of this country’s future.  If he had voted along party lines, he’d have been hailed as a hero.  John Roberts would have been the savior of both our Constitution and our great Republic. 

But he didn’t. 

Now conservatives everywhere are pasting pictures of the Chief Justice on Benedict Arnold’s body and screaming in agony about the painful death of our country.  It seems that life as we know it somehow ended with the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday.  

Make no mistake; the ramifications of yesterday’s ruling are as broad as any we’re likely to every see. But, as usual, a new day’s dawn brings new clarity.  At least for those of us who bothered to read the “Why” behind Chief Justice Robert’s decision…

What happened yesterday was an absolute masterstroke of political positioning that may prove to be beneficial in the long run.  If conservatives would stop yelling, whining and basically acting like a baby with a toothache long enough to read his decision they’d see that his ruling DID protect the Constitution.

It is not the duty of the Supreme Court to interpret the appropriateness of a piece of legislation.  They have no responsibility to decide the political landscape of this country from behind the bench.  The justices were handed a piece of legislation that HAD ALREADY BEEN PASSED by all necessary branches of government.  The decision of its worth to our country had already been decided.  The scales of justice have no national allegiance, nor preference to political party.  Forget your own petty alliances for a moment and remember that fact.

The words that no conservative, aside from myself, will ever admit:

The decision of Chief Justice Roberts was constitutionally correct.  He decided that the ONLY way that the “Individual Mandate” passed muster is if it were applied as a tax since Congress does have the authority to levy taxation as it deems necessary.   It would not, however, be constitutional if applied by Congress under the guise of the Commerce Clause.  This decision is actually beneficial, long term, for conservatives in two ways:

1) Due to the nature of our legal system, once a precedent has been set, it is rarely overturned.  By protecting the Commerce Clause from exploitation by Congress yesterday, he essentially protected the sanctity of the clause going forward.   Any effort to utilize the Commerce Clause as a tool to expand government power has already been ruled against in the nation’s highest court.

2) Chief Justice Roberts made clear that Congress has, without question, the power to increase taxation.  If Congress has the power to PASS taxes, Congress also has the power to REPEAL taxes.  If conservatives win a majority in both houses in November a repeal of, at least, the individual mandate would have already had its legality borne out by the Supreme Court.

What Chief Justice Roberts did yesterday was sheer, unadulterated political genius.  The ability of the Supreme Court to remove political affiliations from the discussion has been called to task frequently as of late.  The American people (at least liberals) were losing faith in the impartiality of the Court.  The court is not a tool to be manipulated by politicians to further their bidding.  The constitutional duty of the court is to rule on the legality of the cases brought before it.  It is the duty of Congress to make laws and the Supreme Court to interpret them.  There can be no intersection of the two.  

Resist the dime store scholars on Facebook who hear only that “Obamacare” has been upheld and immediately turn off their televisions to run screaming at the internet.   Remove your emotions from the situation and read for yourself.  Based on his explanation, the ruling of Chief Justice Roberts was not only sound legally, but also incredibly shrewd politically.  

One can only assume that the Chief Justice considered the long term political disaster that would have resulted from a party line decision on such a controversial bill.  If the bill had been overturned, in spite of it being passed wholly within the framework of our political system, conservatives would have been buried under the political fallout.  The “Heartless Republicans” would have taken, for sheer political reasons, healthcare from millions of Americans.  At least that is how the left would have framed the argument for years to come.  Because of his decision conservatives still have a real chance at taking consolidated power back in November.  

I only hope that conservatives expend as much energy electing officials to overturn this bill as they have screaming at the Supreme Court.  Chief Justice Roberts hasn’t just left the door open for repeal, he has placed a giant flashing sign above it for conservatives to follow.  His decision should be a reminder to the American people that the fate of our country is in YOUR hands.  Posting pictures on Facebook is NOT effective political activism and it is not the duty of the court to bail out your laziness. 

At the end of the day Chief Justice Roberts protected the status and duty of the Supreme Court, protected a key portion of the Constitution and put the long term fate of the Affordable Care Act right where it belongs:

In the hands of Congress. 

I almost stayed home.  When my alarm went off at 4:45 AM I gave lengthy consideration to throwing my phone down the stairs and going back to sleep.   I had been handed my backside on a platter, on more occasions than I care to recall, this season there was very little reason to believe that this endeavor would bear any differing outcome.  But, at the very least, I’d get to watch the sunrise, hear some birds gobble and spend a few hours with my best friend.  So I brushed my teeth, swore under my breath and drove to Trent’s house.  This was to be my last hunt of the season and we had an absurd idea. 

The music was blasting at possibly unhealthy levels on the drive to Trent’s as I attempted to shake the cobwebs and convince myself that this was an endeavor worthy of our time.  He met me outside and with little discussion we quickly set about the task of arranging the setup for our hunt.   The plan called for two hen decoys, one jake and a couple of sleep deprived guys sitting in a blind.  With no further inspection it sounds just like any other turkey hunt in Northern Indiana.  However, there were a couple of mild oddities that warrant further description. 

It must be said that there are no woods on Trent’s property.  There is nowhere for a turkey to roost.  In fact, the turkeys in question were roosted about 650 yards away.  There is NO agriculture ON his property.  There is seemingly NO reason for a turkey to ever set foot on his property.  For some that may have been a mild deterrent.  But optimism, and possibly mental density, is endless.

Another fairly major issue to consider is the existence of things like Trent’s house, Trent’s garage, Trent’s propane tanks and Trent’s dog.  Given the circumstances we did what any hunter in our position would do.  We set our blind directly in front of the propane tanks, which are directly in front of the garage and right beside the dog’s kennel.  Wait, what!?

The sun came up and those glorious birds were in full throat on the roost.   Tom’s taking turns yelling at the world, while the day unfolds is one of my favorite sounds on this planet.  Trent said they would be noisy and they didn’t disappoint.  Again, it must be said, they are 600 yards away with no reason to come our way.  But, at worst, I’d heard more gobbling today than I had otherwise this season. 

In the middle of fixing the world’s problems, the conversation was interrupted by a figure at the edge of the woods.  The figure was so far away that we couldn’t even gauge what it actually was. The binoculars from Hawke Optics went up…. 

“That’s a bird….that’s a gobbler…I think.”

Trent picked up the Ghost Maker Game Call and started clucking and yelping like a flock of hens being tasered.  He was sending a message, and the message was received immediately.  The Tom started our way strutting, gobbling and generally trying to prove his swagger. Nevermind that he was in almost the next county, he had ladies to impress.  He closed the first 200 yards in record time and started moving parallel too us across the field.   He desperately wanted to come survey the situation more closely but he seemed to be a bit deterred by something.  Possibly the garage, house, dog and propane tanks…but that’s just speculation. 

He continued his trek across the field parallel to us and disappeared behind a ridge.  We drifted back to conversaiton about how cool it was that we even saw a turkey in this setup when his full throated gobble reaffirmed his wishes to come dance.  Just as I started to tell Trent that he was going to crest the hill I witnessed a big red head and the tips of a strutting fan. 

He muddled about, approximately 100 yards away, for some time.  Trent hit him with a few sultry notes from the Ghost Maker and it was on.He was coming.  Fast.

The next 45 seconds are a blur of an overzealous turkey sprinting towards our decoys with inappropriate thoughts in his tiny brain, me lining him up and the dog growling and barking.  Just as the turkey got into range Lola decided that he was far  too close.  Her defensive nature took aver and she peppered him woth growls anf barking. He continued, seemingly undeterred by the giant dog a mere 15 yards from our blind.  This turkey was, ahem, dumb with hormones…generally behaving like a 16 year old boy at his first dance…and it cost him dearly.

In the end the absurdity of the entire situation makes it so much sweeter.  This is an animal that will literally run from its own shadow, but today he ran 650 yards across a completely open field, disregarded a dog barking 30 yards away and tried to attack a decoy 25 yards from a garage.  And a house.  And propane tanks. 

There is no reason for any of this to have worked, but it did.  In the end I was able to harvest a wonderful bird, provide my family with tremendous table fare and cultivate a tremendous memory with my best friend on this planet.  Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, fortunately Trent and I are a little of both.

Thank you to Hawke Optics and Ghost Maker Calls for making this happen.  Great equipment makes successful hunts possible!  

The Setup:



The Payoff:

 

You can spend your whole life wondering if what you are doing is good enough.  If it’s worthy of someone else’s attention and adoration.  

Eventually you open your eyes.  You view the competition for what it is instead of viewing your work for what it isn’t.  

Cast a critical eye towards yourself.  Always be your most severe critic.  But don’t stand in the way of your own success because of it.  

Eventually you’ll have your Kanye moment. I mean young, hungry, unsigned Kanye.  Not awards show, walking “WTF” Kanye.  

You’ll understand what he meant when he asked, almost in shock of his circumstances:

“Damn.  These dudes are THAT much better than me?!?”

They weren’t.  He knew it then.  We know it now.  

So ask yourself the same question, honestly.  Are they that much better than you?

They aren’t.  But if even if they were it wouldn’t matter.  Because they aren’t standing in your way.  

You are.

Sometimes, if you can fight through the pain, an unforeseen source of endless joy lay directly beneath the surface of our greatest personal sorrow.  

This is about more than football.  

With reports streaming in that Joe Paterno is officially out as the head football coach at Pennsylvania State University the cooler heads can begin piecing together what this all means.  There are untold number of victims to be unearthed, silent enablers to be interviewed and an accused man who will surely have his day of judgement.  The real story in all of this, though you wouldn’t know it by watching ESPN, is the countless victims who we still owe whatever small measure of justice we can afford them.  

This story is about so much more than football.  Isn’t it?  But what is this story if not attached to JoePa?  Do we ever hear a word of it?  It seems reasonable to assume that the accused would never have encountered such heat if he hadn’t acted as part of one of the nations most recognizable football institutions.  If he hadn’t been an assistant for the winningest coach in football his actions would never have drawn the national media scrutiny that they have.  If Sandusky is the creepy old neighbor instead of heir to the Penn State football throne we may never have heard a word of these crimes.  

The converse being that if he hadn’t been given the platform of assistant at Penn State he would not have had access to the multitudes of potential victims over the last 15-20 years. 

But this story is about more than football.  It is about an icon.  About a perceived Saint in an industry full of filthy whores.  I have been screaming for Coach Paterno to be fired since I started reading the story.  This case, more than any other I can recall in my life, is a perfect example of what happens when good men do nothing.

I will not pretend to know what Coach Paterno was thinking on that Sunday morning but he probably assumed, with good reason, that this was above his pay grade.  If a sexual assault took place on campus by one of his assistants then surely his superiors would handle it.  He committed no criminal acts according to our penal code.  His crimes were in the court of morality.  He enjoyed deity status and broke unbreakable records while an accused monster continued destroying the lives of innocent children.  The rumors continued and he continued to break bread, to work hand in hand with and to accept as his friend a man accused of the most heinous crimes in our society without ever bothering to ask another question.     

This is about more than football.  It is about the another icon falling from grace.  Another man that we heralded as being pure and chaste has faltered. There is not a single college football fan alive that wanted this saga to end this way.  We all understand that JoePa was the last of a bygone era.  The economics of football have forced athletic departments to eschew loyalty in favor of bowl checks.  Sports are better for having been witness to his reign.  By all accounts he was a good man and the positive he has injected into the lives of thousands of young men will outweigh the negative in this chapter when the final scales are measured.  Another icon has fallen.  As a college football fan it saddens me to bear witness to his downfall.  

But this is about more than football.  Therein lies the greatest miscalculations by Penn State and JoePa from day one of this ordeal.  This was never about Coach Paterno coaching next Saturday and their refusal acceptance was their undoing.  Their hubris led to their demise.  In what would be his last speech as head coach the old man pledged to spend his life assisting the university.  Not once did he offer his money, his shoulder, his name or even a therapist to the victims.  In his mind this was always a football issue to be resolved inside the football program by football men.  

Inside the snow globe of College Station Pennsylvania the man that was King for so long could hold his throne.  When you elevate yourself to a national brand identifiable to even casual observers by the white helmets and the old man at head coach you cease operating inside the snow globe.  If you want to sell jerseys in all fifty states and play nationally televised games every other weekend you have to answer to the rest of the country.  Right now, in this moment, the rest of the country wants answers.  They want blood.  They want someone to pay for this awful cover up and their desire to see someone, somewhere brought to justice has quenched the fires, however temporarily, of their blind college football passion.  

We want answers for the victims.  We want justice for the victims.  Honestly, what we want, is to go back however long it takes and erase all of this.  Erase the crimes that have forever altered the lives of innocent children.  Erase the horrible images painted on our minds by the grand jury presentation.  Erase the downfall of yet another icon. Erase the acts that cost so many people so dearly.  Because in the end Joe Paterno deserved a better farewell than this.  But this is about more than football.  This is about children horrifically assaulted by grown men more concerned with protecting old buddies than doing the right thing.  They failed those children.  Every one of them has a price to pay for every victim that they could have prevented.  

This is an awful story.  There is no silver lining.  There is no positive note.  There is only pain.  But this story is about more than football and those who were concerned with nothing else must be made to pay their debts.