FIVE MORE DAYS!

In five more days I will be allowed to use crutches for the first time since my accident. Because I broke my clavicle at the same time I broke my leg, using crutches was not until this point a possibility. My clavicle fracture, however, was not nearly as serious as my leg fracture. It should be sufficiently healed by Sunday that I will be allowed to use crutches in order to transport myself. My crutch time will be limited for a week or so, but after that, I'll have relative freedom. My dad bought crutches that adjust to my height, and my mom spray-painted them a lovely shade of pink. I keep them in view in my bedroom to serve as a reminder not to do anything stupid to delay their use any further. I am so excited I can scarcely contain myself.

I haven't been online or watched much TV today, but I did catch a headline that Lindsay Lohan has been sentenced to jail. It will be interesting to see if this is a "for real" sentence, or if she basically walks in the front door of the jail and out the back door. I suspect she won't be required to put in the full ninety days, but even a month would be a step in the direction of justice. I don't have any personal grudge against Ms. Lohan beyond what I have against anyone else whose behavior endangers the welfare of others. What I really dislike is the multi-tiered justice system whereby the wealthy are often treated with more deference than are ordinary citizens.

One of my cousins had a teacher who was convicted of something related to having juvenile pornography on his computer. Exactly how long the material was viewed, exactly by whom, and how it got there in the first place were all topics never fully divulged. It's a small town where they live, and rumors tend to run rampant; there's talk that the man is actually taking the rap for someone else. Yet he's locked away for an absolute minimum of six years. I'm not condoning the viewing of child pornography, and I'm very sorry for the victims. Still, this man touched absolutely no one. In our area we have murderers serving less time than this man will serve. Might society have been better served by revoking the man's teaching credential and requiring him to register as a sex offender for life? For that matter, shouldn't a little more effort go into nabbing the producers of child porn rather than taking the simpler route of finding and punishing the viewers?

I don't know if there are easy answers here, but I hope Ms. Lohan does at least as much time as I would do had I been found guilty of the same thing, and then of violating the probation, which was, in itself, probably a gift.

Perhaps Judge Alex will be a talking head on one of the news shows covering Ms. Lohan's plight. The problem is that more often than not, I don't learn of his appearances on such programs until after they've aired.
This is unfortunate, as his comments are usually very insightful.