To use a phrase from a time past, yesterday was a bummer of a day. Mrs. Crucis and I went to the funeral of a 29-year old man who died suddenly last week. The funeral was in a small town about 100 miles SE from here. We didn’t go so much for the young man. I hadn’t met him and Mrs. Crucis hadn’t seen him since he was a child. We went to help support his parents and grandmother, all whom we have known for decades.

The young man had two kids, a boy and a girl, neither old enough for school. I was thinking that now they would likely have no memories of their father when they grow older.

Most of the funeral attendees were friends and relatives. A significant number were from the local Amish community.

The young man had helped them during their harvest although he had acknowledged that he was no ‘farm boy.’ But his willingness to help buys a lot of credit in a community built around self-help, cooperation, and the willingness to share labor for kith and kin.

His kindness with the Amish, and theirs to him, is proof that when it counts we are all kith and kin.

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More of the story about the shooting in Ferguson, MO, is coming to light. Witnesses now are confirming the cop’s version of the event. The instigators of the rioting is not the local residents, but from outside agitators like the New Black Panthers from Oakland, CA.

Add to the mix that the toxicology reports reveals that Brown had marijuana in his system, the facts are now replacing the myths spread since last week by the media.

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“Stalinesque tactics!” Rick Perry vows to fight the indictment issued by a select Travis County grand jury. Even David Axelrod says the indictment has no basis.