I Sewanee! Last week, seventeen-year-old high school football star Jamiel Andre Shaw was shot to death yards from his home at 8:40pm on a Sunday night. Gang members pulled up beside him and asked him what gang he belonged to. Shaw ignored them and they killed him for it.

Shaw was a starting running back at Los Angeles High School and the MVP of the Southern League as only a junior. He was not a gang member. Indeed, the police are calling this a random, unprovoked attack.

Late in November of 2007, twenty-four-year-old Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor was shot to death in his home by a burglar who didn't realize the player was injured and thus at home, not playing in the game as expected.

"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy," Redskins owner Dan Snyder said. Coach Joe Gibbs added, "We're going to miss him. I'm not talking as a player. I'm talking about as a person."

There are serious crimes happening in the United States, and we need serious investigators to solve them. I must tell you I am embarrassed by the misuse of our limited resources to harass athletes accused of "lying."

The recent dog and pony show as Clemens testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform provides a case in point. I remember watching it with my mouth hanging open. "Are you serious?" I thought. "Are we really going to waste all this precious committee time, all these precious resources on this ridiculous spectacle?"

Clemens did steroids. He knows it. The committee knows it. We know it. Done. Pulling him into that media circus and now playing the "gotcha" game. "You lied. Let's call in the FBI to get you on perjury." Pure ridiculous-ness.

A point that brings me to Marion Jones. Are you kidding me? She has boys who need to be raised. We're going to throw her in jail for lying? Good lord. We better all go turn ourselves in if we're gong to start imprisoning people for lying.

I come from the South, and in the South we have an expression: We've got bigger fish to fry.

Did we all feel safer knowing the dangerous Martha Stewart was off our streets? Do the families of Shaw and Taylor breathe a sigh of relief knowing the dangerous Marion Jones is behind bars?

If authorities feel they must pursue these folks, at least give the offenders fines and community service. Prison time for petty lies smacks of power gone drunk to me.

We have serious crimes occurring on our streets. Teenage boys and young men are being gunned down before they even have a sparkle of prime in their eyes. Let's take the limited time and money of our authorities to solve the real problems in our society. Good gracious, Henry Waxman, what about poverty, education? Does your committee really have nothing better to do than entrap Clemens in some sort of a perjury scheme? Are you kidding me?

What's the world coming to? I Sewanee!

March 2008