Sorry, no column today Joan has not been well this week. After eight years of chronic leukemia, and about the same number of chemo treatments (I lose track) her immune levels are almost non-existent. There’s a bronchitis bug of some kind going around; she caught it. Accompanying her through three medical appointments, plus at least as many prescriptions, left my mind rather like melting jelly. I had some ideas for a column, but they simply would not gel. So all I can do is send along some of the mail received about last week’s column, on the relationship between suffering and sin. 
YOUR TURN
Several of the comments on last week’s column were brief.  Vern Ratzlaff: “Powerfully said.”  Jean Thompson: “Food for thought on a sunny morning.”  Vic Sedo sent a quotation, from an unknown source: ““Speaking ('reading') the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.”
Steve Roney had a comment about the guilt or innocence of broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi: “If the judge, who has special training and a lot of experience in judging such things, has heard all the evidence, as you and I have not, and concludes that there is no proof that Ghomeshi actually did the things you accuse him of, I think we have to accept that as definitive -- the possibility is too great that, if we do not accept the traditional adage "innocent until proven guilty," innocent parties are too likely to suffer unjustly, from self-appointed lynch mobs, or at a minimum in the court of public opinion. This matters a lot to a public entertainer like Ghomeshi. [Even] if he is innocent, his career is almost certainly over. “The fact that you or I do not like Ghomeshi is not relevant. That we may find his sexual orientation incomprehensible or disgusting is not relevant -- to this case, though I understand that sadism is illegal in Canadian law even if the other partner has indeed given consent, as seems to be the case here. If so, this may well not be over for Ghomeshi. Frankly, I find this unjust. Consent ought to be the end of it. ‘Two consenting adults,’ ‘the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation,’ and all that. We accept the logic elsewhere. “As to the issue of consent, I believe that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The inalienable right to liberty means that they have an inalienable right to choose, to consent. Government cannot legitimately take that from them, except in cases where they are infringing the equal rights of others. “Moreover, the truth that all men are created equal means that a government bureaucrat cannot logically choose better than the individual involved. He has no innate superiority. In fact, the odds are heavy that he will choose worse, since he is not going to know all the factors the person affected does.”
Laurna Tallman called last week’s column “a fascinating exercise in the assumption of guilt. You have decided to believe the women who have accused Jian Ghomeshi of assault. I cannot imagine why.” Here are some excerpts from Laurna’s much longer letter: “If you have followed their testimony and the cross examination by Ghomeshi's lawyer Marie Henein, you cannot avoid the conclusion that they colluded, that 
they admit to lying to the police and in the court, and that they have gained a tremendous amount of publicity -- for actresses, such attention is to die for. Which might also tell you something about their motivations in engaging inappropriately with Mr. Ghomeshi in the first place and why they evidently were prepared to take further risks, if indeed further dating entailed ‘risks’ at all of the kind they described. Mr. Ghomeshi's initial public statements, which seemed naive of him to make, suggest that his behaviour falls within the range of behaviour some sectors of society deem ‘normal’ and on the milder side of that sector, in this brave new world we inhabit. Not that I approve, but my standards for myself are relatively high, by today's standards. “My assessment of the women who brought charges against Ghomeshi is that they are opportunistic, dishonest, lacking in judgment, of little self-control in their sexual behaviour, and looking for attention to further their private agendas. I have known abused women and these females to not appear to me to be showing any of the signs of abused women, despite their use of the rhetoric in which they appear to have been coached. “The rape shield law, under which Ghomeshi's accusers brought him to court, is essentially unconstitutional and there have been serious contests in the Supreme Court that have not resolved these issues in a wretched piece of paternalistic legislation. Typically, women, but sometimes men, make an accusation in regard to something alleged to have happened between two partners or spouses or others engaged in an intimate-private situation where there are no witnesses. “I have little sympathy for any of the accusers or for the accused in the Ghomeshi trial -- the women do not appear to me to have credible testimony, but Ghomeshi may have a significant aberration (if the women are believable, which we don't know; their own testimony speaks against them). Someone famous said famously a few years back that ‘the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.’ The legislators have done no service to women or to men in our country with the laws they cooked up to deal with what happens in the bedrooms of the nation.”
D. Martin chastised me: “It would be good if you took your own advice. In this column, you talked about people cheating on their spouse, and of course you used a male as the one who is cheating. You should do some research before making such a misandrist and sexist statement. When there is a cheating man, guess what, there is also a woman cheating who could very likely have a husband and children left behind. Please, ease off on the misandry. It really makes you look bad.” The writer sent along five links about women cheating on men. 
Bob Rollwagen took a wider focus: “Ever since humans walked and discovered that he/she who carried the club was superior, the rules have been created to advantage the strong. Empires have been built by the strong taking advantage and abusing the rights of the weak. Laws punish those that steal insignificant amounts and empower those that steal what otherwise could have been the wealth of a nation. ”Democratic governments that allow the current monetizing system to be the ticket of entry for leadership, have been designed to perpetuate this way of life. Environments that promote unlimited education and reward the creation of value for society as a whole are considered to be liberal rather than progressive.”
Charles Hill wrote out of his experience counselling inmates: “’Rough Sex’ is OK unless the offender uses it to force compliance. Maybe there was more to the trial than you knew. Many females make themselves vulnerable with drugs or alcohol but they still have to be able to give consent. If not, it is justifiably a rape. “There are a lot of legal injustices around sexual crimes. In Texas, someone who gets drunk and gropes a woman sexually can be made to register for life as a sex offender. Registered sex offenders are all listed on websites. They have difficulty getting jobs. Some towns won't let them live in the city limits. Incidentally, the recidivism rate for sex offenders is about 10% but nearly 45% will be back in jail, much of which is because they can't get a job or they are ‘criminal types’ who do other crimes.”
Tom Watson thought I had painted with too broad a brush: “While I agree that the punishment rarely fits the crime, I’m uncertain about the last line: ‘Suffering is a sure sign that a sin has happened.’
“There’s no question that some suffering is the result of someone else’s sin. A recent example would be that officials in Flint, Michigan apparently knew that the water was contaminated with lead and yet did nothing about it, thus causing the suffering of a good number of people. That’s inexcusably sinful. “However, take the example of someone contracting breast cancer and, in due course, dying from it— something that happened to our oldest daughter. She endured 27 months of suffering. I can’t imagine that being punishment for sin on her part...but if that suffering is a sure sign that somewhere a sin happened, where would we attribute the blame? “The cancer could, I suppose, have been the result of chemicals used in crops in the area where she lived. Or artificial ingredients in the food she ate. Or something from the environment. And there might be an element of sin in there somewhere. Trouble is that would be very difficult to trace, so the link would be tenuous at best. “It’s more likely the case that, for whatever unknown reason, cells in her body rank amok, the result being breast cancer that went to the bone. The relationship between cause and effect is not always clear, and that leaves me with the question: Is suffering always a sure sign that a sin has happened?”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
This column comes to you using the electronic facilities of Woodlakebooks.com.        If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the “Reply” button.        To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedgesunsubscribe@quixotic.ca.        You can access several years of archived columns at http://edges.Canadahomepage.net.        I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly, at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedgessubscribe@quixotic.ca
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