THE ZION LITMUS - HOW DO WE RATE?

 I am going to attempt to do this topic justice - and it is one that is near and dear to my heart.  I just got some news that kind of shook me and it tackles some gut-wrenching "self-ask" questions of; "How do we treat the stranger in our midst?".

It is one that I often fail in - so I am in no way pointing the finger, but it is one that everyone must ask themselves.  It is one of the major yardsticks that will be used to justify ourselves, or condemn us as individuals or as a collective group (church, city, state, nation, world).  This societal problem brought down Sodom (known as the "sin of Sodom") and it is under-emphasized over the more well-known sin of unbridled sexual sin and perversion towards the angels and daughters of Lot, etc etc.  My wife has read the apocrypha on Sodom and the thing that seemed to be even more offensive to the Lord was that the people did not entreat the stranger and more vulnerable that came into their midst with kindness and compassion.  In fact, they were not fed, brutalized or otherwise cared for.

This is how this has hit home for me.  My oldest daughter who is amazingly smart and is used to having life by the horns (almost 4.0 GPA in Engineering school undergrad and graduate work; probably 0.1 percentile territory), suffered a major setback or two (including a catastrophic spiral fracture arm break during power lifting), which led to the onset of mental illness.  Despite the best efforts of her younger brother to help her, she kept slipping more and more until she lost complete control (ability to maintain employment) and was basically living on the streets despite what everyone tried to do.  The efforts of my wife and everyone else in her sphere has been heroic.  But until you understand the workings of paranoia and schizophrenia, you have no idea how difficult it is to work with someone.  If you are an engineer, it is especially vexing due to the lack of logic and randomness of the behavior.  If you are empathic and an engineer, you have to disconnect from the situation completely in order to keep your own sanity intact.

So, through a series of events, my daughter ended up in St George, Utah where she had some support system in place.  My wife had tried several times to have her committed several times before this, so she could get life counseling and proper medication to bring her condition under control - but all to no avail, until recently.  My daughter was literally burning every bridge she had to those who cared for her as she suspiced everyone of likely being out to get her and being impossible to be around.  My wife, being the awesome woman that she is, never gave up on her - and just tried to be patient in prayer and fasting until my daughter hit rock bottom.  

Well, that day finally came.  My daughter had gone to the ATM in St George to try and find enough money to pay for gas for her van that she was living in.  She went to another one (her card was not working probably due to too many pin tries) and either the police misidentified her or assumed she was up to no good.  A police cruiser came roaring up behind her as she was walking away from the ATM with nothing more than a wallet and ATM card on her person (no backpack or anything in her hands and her hands were clearly visible as she was walking away).  The police officer yelled at her to stop, which she did not (she was not sure he was talking to her, since she had done nothing wrong).  She kept walking and he ran up and tackled her to the ground.  He called in backup which then came and promptly kicked her in the head as she tried to wrest her injured arm behind her to cuff her.  They initially charged her with felony theft (Whiskey Tango Hotel....) even though she had stolen nothing or done nothing wrong.  How can you be charged with theft when you have nothing on your person that was stolen?!?  Also, a minor count of resisting arrest because she was tackled and resisted when her injured arm (that has a documented 20% decrease in range of motion), was being wrenched behind her.

When she complained of pain in her head after the arrest, they called an ambulance and they confirmed there was a problem when they put a helmet on her and took her to the hospital for an MRI.  That was six weeks ago.  A few days ago, I reviewed the MRI results and gave them to my doctor friend who is one of the good ones.  She said that the break was indeed fresh and that she had sustained a potentially catastrophic injury to her head.  My daughter nursed herself back to health in the wilderness outside St George but began to experience extreme pain in her eyes.  To the point that she called 911 in the evening.  A policeman went out to find her and bring her into the hospital for examination.  I believe she was dealing with pressure on the optic nerves from the brain swelling.  My wife, probably under influence of the HG, called into the St George police in the middle of the same night and the officer who had cared for my daughter answered the phone.  Amazing timing.  They were able to assess her and have her involuntarily committed to get the medication that she needed.  They apparently now have time-release drugs that last up to a month.  After several weeks, this medication begins to have an effect on the patient and they begin to think rationally and normally again.

Basically, the boys (and girls) in blue screwed up and they charged her with ridiculous things after they brutalized her and realized they had crossed so many lines.  Apparently (I still have to review the requested body cam footage and audio) they even screwed up and did not tell her why they were arresting her and never bothered to read her the Miranda Rights until she asked them to repeat them while she was in the ambulance being treated.  This is ALL sorts of messed up and on so many levels.

Part of me is very grateful that this happened - because she would have never gotten the treatment she needed.  Part of me wants to fly down and be there for that court date so I can hand them their asses....  And I have what it takes to do so.  Just like I handed the Montana Tax Commission their asses when they tried to assess me $11,000 in state income tax that I did not owe them.  People can fling the poo, hoping that you will just roll over and die.  The thing they often do not expect, is when you push back.  And push back hard.

If the evidence comes out as I expect it will, I expect at a minimum that ALL charges in the criminal case will be dropped.  A judge already did a preliminary review and dropped the charges to misdemeanors - which is still bullshit.  When we get done with them, they will beg for her forgiveness, pay for all the medical bills (so far, over $5,000) and compensate her for the loss of time and will leave her record clean and expunged.  It is very simple.  If things go well for them, they will not have to face a lawsuit in civil court for police brutality and damages (short and long term) to my daughter's health.  I am still waffling on this possibility.  Right now, I am all sorts of pissed off at the situation and also at myself that I did not take her seriously until 5 week later when my doctor friend confirmed that she was not exaggerating the extent of her injuries.  The chances are quite high that she could have died from a brain bleed in the desert outside St George.  That shakes me - shakes me hard.

So, what does this have to do with Zion?  It comes down to not seeing something (on video, or otherwise) and jumping to the worst assumption.  It comes down to asking questions and then arriving at a conclusion.  It comes down to reaching out to help the marginalized in society instead of nearly almost killing them and trying to drive them out.  This is the sin of Sodom.  I have experienced it here in Cardston as my wife and I have worked with the marginalized.  People are insular and live in the proverbial ivory tower not reaching out and being compassionate.  This is a massive flaw in character.  Far worse than any sexual sin (that is not coercive in nature, at least) that might have existed in Sodom.  I am not sure why, but I think one is indicative of decay in the other area.  I think the two go hand in hand, though I have never figured the mechanism out; other than general selfishness.  Sexual sin is often a sin of selfishness (including a resulting abortion and the destruction of healthy relationships due to infidelity, etc).  Mistreating the marginalized is often a sin of selfishness because it takes work and kindness and compassion to not just dismiss those who are suffering.