Let wonder replace worry

Verdict In Landmard Cyberbullying Trial

Mom found not guilty of felony charges in the MySpace suicide trial. Unfortunately, its not considered a crime for a mom to act like a child on the internet. My heart breaks for the family of the 13 year old who hung herself after finding out her MySpace boyfriend was made up by a former friend and her mom. I was honestly hoping for a different outcome.

Via the Wired blog Threat Level:

Lori Drew, the 49-year-old woman charged in the first federal cyberbullying case, was cleared of felony computer-hacking charges by a jury Wednesday morning, but convicted of three misdemeanors. The jury deadlocked on a remaining felony charge of conspiracy.

After just over a day of deliberation, the six-man, six-woman jury acquitted Drew of three felony charges of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in an emotionally charged case that stemmed from a 2006 MySpace hoax targeting a 13-year-old girl, who later committed suicide.

Tina Meier, the mother of the girl, shook her head silently from the gallery as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors claimed Drew and others obtained unauthorized access to MySpace by creating a fake profile for a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans." The account was used to flirt with, and then reject, 13-year-old old Megan Meier. The case hinged on the government's novel argument that violating MySpace's terms of service for the purpose of harming another was the legal equivalent of computer hacking, and Drew faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each charge.

But on Wednesday, jurors found Drew guilty only of three counts of gaining unauthorized access to MySpace for the purpose of obtaining information on Megan Meier — misdemeanors that potentially carry up to a year in prison, but most likely will result in no time in custody. The jury unanimously rejected the three felony computer hacking charges that alleged the unauthorized access was part of a scheme to intentionally inflict emotional distress on Megan.

U.S. District Judge George Wu has not yet ruled on a defense motion that, if granted, would overturn even the misdemeanors for lack of evidence, and result in a judgment of acquittal. It's also unclear whether the government will seek a new trial on the deadlocked conspiracy charge.

The slap-on-the-wrist verdict is a partial rebuke to federal prosecutors, who chose to charge Drew federally even after authorities in Missouri — where the hoax unfolded — found that Drew's behavior did not violate any state laws at the time. Some legal experts and civil libertarians decried the prosecution as an abuse of computer-crime laws.

Underscoring the importance of the high-profile case to the government, Thomas O'Brien, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, personally oversaw the prosecution and handled some of the witness testimony himself. O'Brien was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2007 to oversee the 266 federal prosecutors in the second-largest U.S. Attorney's office in the country.

The verdict followed three days of testimony by 15 witnesses.

The indictment charged that in September 2006 Drew conspired to create the Josh Evans account with her then 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, and a then-18-year-old employee and family friend named Ashley Grills, for the purpose of inflicting psychological harm on Meier.

Prosecutors alleged that Drew and the two others used the profile to lure Megan into an online relationship with "Josh" to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter online. Midway through the ruse, prosecutors said Drew changed the plan and wanted to print out the correspondence between Megan and the fake boy in order to confront her with the pages in public and humiliate her.

That confrontation never occurred. But after "Josh" turned on Megan and told her he wanted to sever their relationship, Megan hanged herself in her bedroom in October 2006.

Neighbors in O'Fallon, Missouri, the small town where the Drews and Meiers lived four houses away from each other, turned on Drew when her supposed complicity in the hoax emerged. They called her a murderer, Lori Drew's father testified Monday.

A year after Megan's death, her great-aunt Vicki Dunn contacted a local newspaper columnist who wrote about the case but didn't identify Drew in the article, since she hadn't been charged with any crime. The piece was picked up by numerous publications, sparking a frenzy among bloggers and others. who outed Drew's name and published her address and phone number online.

The Drews and their business associates received harassing calls and death threats. Sarah Drew testified that her school asked her to leave after officials concluded they could not control the bullying she was  receiving from other students. A former business associate of Drew testified that a parent at her child's school asked her why she did business with a "murderer."

Publicity over the suicide prompted county prosecutors to review the case to determine if charges could be filed against Drew, but they were stymied by the fact that there was no criminal law addressing the cyberbullying that Drew was alleged to have committed.

That's when prosecutors in Los Angeles sought to indict Drew, charging her with unauthorized access to MySpace's computers, using a federal anti-hacking statute known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Prosecutors charged that Drew was guilty of the crime by violating MySpace's terms-of-service agreement when she and her co-conspirators allegedly provided false information to open the account and pose online as the 16-year-old boy.

MySpace's user agreement requires registrants, among other things, to provide factual information about themselves and to refrain from soliciting personal information from minors or using information obtained from MySpace services to harass or harm other people. By allegedly violating that click-to-agree contract, Drew committed the same crime as any hacker, prosecutors claimed.

The novel use of the statute was criticized by numerous legal experts who said the case set a "scary" precedent and potentially made a felon out of anyone who violates the terms-of-service of any website.

But testimony in the case offered by prosecution witness Ashley Grills under a grant of immunity showed that nobody involved in the hoax actually read the terms of service. Grills also said that the hoax was her idea, not Drew's, and that it was Grills who created the Josh Evans profile, and later sent the cruel message that tipped the emotionally vulnerable 13-year-old girl into her final, tragic act.

Double Cheeseburgers and Drivers Licenses

Getting a drivers license for a teenager here in Washington is a long process that can take years. They focus on learning and safety for months and months before letting you on the street.

Arkansas has a totally different situation. When I turned 14 I memorized answers in a book and took a test. Passing that, I had a permit that I could do some limited driving for 30 days. Then I went back, took the instructor for a 5 minute drive and was issued a license. It was restricted to only be use with a licensed driver until I turned 16. Then I was free to drive anyone anywhere.

Needless to say, teens here can't believe it when I tell them about that.

Driving also meant I had to get a job. For 2 years while I was in high school, I was gainfully employed at McDonald's.  I did everything during that a McDonald's employee can learn to do during that time and even landed jobs for a several of my friends.

Our best selling item by far was the .99 cent double cheeseburger. Once we raised the price to $1.19 and customers went crazy. It was back to .99 within a couple of weeks. Now 13 years later, I read an article online today saying that McDonald's is finally considering raising the price.

I bet this is one of the only things you could find that's price has not changed since the mid 90s.

People give McDonald's a bad name, but they are alright with me.

Arkansas and the Election

I am excited to take a break from writing about politics and get back to writing about ministry.

But first, I came across some fascinating maps The New York Times has put together from the election on Tuesday.

I spent my whole life in Arkansas until moving to Washington over 7 years ago. (Man, it does not seem that long. Wow.) I still love the south and will probably move back one of these days.

This map amazed me.

I'm amazed that almost the entire state of Arkansas voted in bigger numbers for McCain than they did Bush- who is considered much more of a traditional conservative that southern voters are attracted to.

I don't have any idea why- but I do wonder how much of this was against Obama than for McCain. Of course, I have no way of knowing if this map in any way reflects racism. Comparing to the rest of the country though, I do wonder.

Even though I am no fan of Obama's politics at all, there are things about his election that excite me. Maybe I'll make a list sometime, but here is a big one:

We will finally have a black family living in the White House. Tuesday night, America put a dagger in the heart of racism in this country. Whether or not the map reflects this in any way, our entire country is better for it.

Election Night 2008

I just cannot understand how people can put their hope and trust in a politician. I can understand supporting someone- but dancing in the street? It looks like the party on 1st Ave in downtown Seattle is going to go all night.

Congratulations to Barack Hussein Obama-our President. He may not have my support, he certainly does not have my hope or confidence, but he will have my prayers. And he will need them. He is inheriting a mess.

I am scared for what a completely democratically controlled government will do. Even after a 700 billion dollar bailout they still have a long list of things they say their going to do. Where is all of this money coming from? Obama sounds like Santa sometimes. Did you see the woman on YouTube who thinks that when Obama is President she is not going to have worry about paying her mortgage or buying any gas? She honestly believes that. That alone is almost enough to make me glad I did not support him.

I found it interesting that in his speech tonight he uttered a line you would have never heard yesterday. "We may not be able to do all of this is 1 year or even 1 term..." He knows they can't afford everything he's promised. 

I am not scared because they are democrats, but because the Federal government acts best (which is still not very good) when different parties control the executive and legislative branches. Look at the first 2 years of both Clinton's and Bush's presidencies. History just repeats itself and we never learn.

My allegiance lies in my Savior and that is why I'll never declare allegiance to a man or a party. However, from this faith I hold so dear, I read this:

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.
-The Apostle Paul to Timothy.

So Mr. President Elect- I gladly begin my 4 years of praying especially for you.

Final Thoughts on the 2008 Presidental Election

Hopefully this time tomorrow the Presidential election will be over. I was playing around on 270towin.com today and came up with this scenario which would be both fascinating and awful at the same time: (Click pic for full size.)

Its definitely unlikely, but was fun to put together.

I bet I've read and heard 100 times today how important it is to vote. Nicole and I mailed in our ballots a couple of weeks ago, but I can totally understand how someone's conscience could not allow them to vote. I respect that decision. The system is broken, the electoral college is unfair, the 2 party rule is corrupt, and we have come to accept being lied to by politicians.

I believe this election ended when McCain voted for the bailout. At least Obama is upfront about his socialistic leanings.

My prediction is that Barack Obama will easily be elected President tomorrow and Hillary Clinton will have the longest, saddest night of her life.

That is a guess- the fact facing us tomorrow is that whomever is elected will spend 4 years giving their best to the job. The will fall short, break promises, and give late night TV lots to laugh at. The country will stay polarized, just as all politicians from the 2 parties want it to be, and the race for 2012 will begin Wednesday morning.

Too bad Ron Paul is not 10 years younger.

Youth or Student: Does Language Really Matter?

I read a fascinating article this weekend over at youthministry.com by Christian Smith, the director of The National Study of Youth and Religion. Anyone connected to youth ministry over the past few years has undoubtedly heard about, read about, and spent time reflecting on this study.

The article is titled Student vs Youth: Is there a difference?

I remember reading a blog post a few years ago, which I won't link, where the author talked of his first task at his new youth ministry position would be to change the term 'youth ministry" to "student ministry."

According to this article, that was a bad move. Smith pulls no punches as he describes how language does matter and calls using the term "student" a travesty. He encourages all youth ministries to use the language "youth ministry" instead of "student ministry" and "teenagers" instead of "students."

Some of the commenter's tend to disagree- but I believe Smith makes a compelling argument. I really resonate and agree with what he says here and my language in ministry reflects that. However, I never really connected the why, or saw any problem with the term before reading this.

I have good friends who have websites, ministries, and blogs using the name "student ministry" in some form and would be interested in hearing their perspective on this.

What did you do with your extra hour tonight?

Here is what I did:

Grateful for the extra time and surprised it only took a hour.