Play by the House Rules

Mother thought I was too intelligent to be a woman. Translate that to "ever be married." Or as would sometimes add "to be happy."

At an extremely early age I saw that there were always at least two sides to every story and that is if there were only too people involved.

Maybe it was my very active and creative imagination but I immediately got that my reality was not necessarily your reality. College only made matters worse; specifically philosophy and debate. I understood Plato and Jean Paul Sartre and Kierkegaard. Dad thought I should have trained as a lawyer but it just seemed too black and white. But I worked as a court clerk for a while and came to understand the law.

But there is something wonderful about the logic of the law. But I do believe entirely too many people fail to understand it especially when it go against what they want. It does not matter who is right or wrong but who broke the law and can that be proved. And was their a clear and precise law to be broken. That can get rather muddled.

My father played poker and taught us kids the game. According to Hoyle and table rules were everyday phrases in my home. I was the kid at the neighbor's house that when the Monopoly game was pulled out I asked by what rules we were playing. If there are two people cheating in a three handed card game who is wrong if the non-cheater loses all his money. The one not cheating because he was too stupid to get up and leave.

I am one of those strange people that can see the argument from every side and defend it. Not like it. That is entirely something different. But if I take a side it is usually based on fairness. No one promised me fairness but does not prevent me from arguing for it. And fairness is not always equal or unchangeable. It can in fact be quite variable depending upon table rules if you will.

We are great at setting out table rules whether it is Hoyle for games or Roberts Rule of Order for meetings or the Constitution of the United States and the Supremes. We are a civilized country if we play by the rules as written down. Mob violence is not by the rules. Nor is it fair to try a person in the media either before or after the trial because it didn't go as you wanted it.

We have become a nation of whiners. Not a nation of laws. If our side loses we want the rules changed.

I think the Table Rules were followed in the Martin/Zimmerman case. I think the jury did a wonderful job even though they were picked for the belief that as mothers they would be biased. Now let's see who are whiners and who truly believe in the rule of law.

Remember Justice is blind. And so it does not always go the way us biased and illogical people want it to go.