Index: Pages/ Home, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22

Ponten on a Mission

She is a world traveler on a perpetual goodwill tour. Mary Jane Ponten of Colorado Springs, Colorado, this year alone, working alongside several nonprofit organizations, will visit China, Mongolia, Bolivia, Ghana twice, and Taiwan twice, to help train workers serving people with various disabilities.
Overall in that capacity, Ponten also has been to Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Cuba, Ethiopia, Peru, Holland and Belgium. The catch: Ponten is age 77, regularly uses a wheelchair, and has cerebral palsy.
The United Cerebral Palsy website claims an estimated 764,000 Americans have a degree of cerebral palsy, which is usually caused by brain damage occurring before, during or shortly after birth. It affects the brain's ability to control muscle movement, and usually doesn't affect intelligence.
"I'm really 31 years old," she joked in a telephone interview. "On all these trips overseas, I enjoy everything but the food. I'm used to the long plane rides. In China, [a restaurant] once served me deep-fat fried sparrow with its head still on it, and that was a little difficult for me to eat."
She visits these countries with Mephibosheth Ministry, her own organization, or with Wheels for the World or Friends of the Disabled Latin America, all faith-based groups serving people with disabilities.
"I tell God I'm too old and disabled to go," she said. "But I cannot not go. I'm compelled to go. When going overseas, I go as a speaker and usually have a translator. I'm there to show them a person with a disability has value, that I'm valuable to God, and that people with disabilities in other countries are valuable to God."
Everywhere she goes, she teaches pastors and lay people alike that people with disabilities shouldn't be pushed into the back rooms and rows of churches. Her goal for people with disabilities is complete inclusion in every aspect of spiritual life.
She was afraid for her life only once. Ponten was in Ghana, a country one-third Muslim, on September 11, 2001. Another time, in China, she was told to quickly board a bus after someone learned that police were in the area.
One frustration for her has been having to use a translator, especially in Ghana, where "they speak British English with a Ghanaian accent, and I speak American English with a cerebral palsy accent," she laughed.
In 2001, Northwestern College honored her as alumnus of the year.
Contact danieljvance.com [Blue Valley Sod and Palmer Bus Service grants make this column possible.]

Understanding the Crime of Arson
Q.: What is the legal definition of arson?
A.: Arson is the crime of intentionally burning a house, building, vehicle, watercraft, aircraft or other structure that can be occupied. A conviction can result in a jail term and a fine. 
Q.: What prompts people to commit arson?
A.: A variety of motives may prompt someone to commit arson, but trying to get money by making false insurance claims are certainly high on the list.  For example, a 75-year-old Ohio woman was sentenced to six months in prison after she was found guilty of two counts of aggravated arson and one count of insurance fraud for setting fire to her bed and breakfast and then filing a false insurance claim.
Q.: What happens to the money paid by an insurance company in such a case?
A.: In order to be compensated in this case, the insurance company sued the arsonist for reimbursement.  The sentencing judge ordered her to pay back the insurance company more than $13,000.
Q.: What about the costs associated with the fire department's response?   
A.: The costs associated with the fire department's response, as well as its investigation, are reimbursable.  In this case, the sentencing judge ordered the arsonist to reimburse the fire department more than $5,000. 
Q.: If a firefighter had been killed in the fire, could this arsonist have faced murder charges?
A.: Yes.  As with other crimes, an arsonist is responsible for the consequences of this criminal misconduct, including the death of firefighters responding to a fire that is deliberately set.
Q.:   What is the difference between arson and aggravated arson?
A.:  The crime of arson is intentionally burning a building.  Often, however, the act of intentionally burning a building creates serious risk of harm to people as well.  "Aggravated arson" is the crime of creating a substantial risk of serious physical harm to a person other than the arsonist.  For example, someone who sets fire to an occupied building creates a substantial risk that, in addition of the harm the fire does to the building, a person or persons inside the building may be harmed. 
Q.: How are juvenile arsonists treated?
A.: Depending upon the severity of the situation, and whether persons were harmed, penalties for juvenile arsonists vary.  Juvenile offenders (especially first-time offenders) are referred to programs that deal with their fire-setting behavior.  The youth meet with both mental health experts and fire-prevention specialists.  First-time offenders also typically face community service assignments, while repeat offenders face confinement through the Department of Youth Services.  In addition, many fire departments also have effective juvenile arson prevention programs for the purpose of preventing future arson.
Q.: When fire departments suspect arson, what do they do?
A.: Arson investigators, who are trained in determining the "cause and origin" of fires, will conduct investigations that may involve examining burn patterns, looking for gasoline or other accelerants, and interviewing individuals.  If it is determined that the fire was deliberately set, evidence is collected and submitted for forensic and submitted for forensic analysis. Once an arrest has been made, the suspect is  charged with a criminal offense.  An arson defendant also may be sued in a civil action.  For example, if the arsonist has tried to make an insurance claim for the deliberately damaged property, the insurance company may deny the claim and then bring a civil suit against the arsonist..
Law You Can Use is a weekly consumer legal information column provided by the Ohio State Bar Association.  This article was prepared by Lawrence T. Bennett, Esq., Deputy Director, Fire Science Education at the University of Cincinnati, and reviewed by Douglas Wehmeyer, Fire Captain/Investigator, Deerfield Township Fire & Rescue Department.  Articles appearing in this column are intended to provide broad, general information about the law.  Before applying this information to a specific legal problem, readers are urged to seek advice from an attorney.

Laura on Life

To top off a stressful week of flu-ridden children, car problems, and other small crises, my husband and I pronounced ourselves ready for a break. Now that the kids were better, we hired my nephew to baby-sit and went to have dinner and a movie…alone. Just he and I. Do you know how rare that is?
It is so rare that we're not sure how to act when it happens. Without the furor of annoying rug rats behind us, the minivan seemed huge. We kept starting conversations and then stopping in the middle and forgetting what we wanted to say. That may seem odd, but it is exactly what happens when the kids are in the car with us. There must be a running stream of annoyances that run in the background of our subconscious.
"So, where do you want to go for…?"
POP!
"Okay, who popped a balloon in the…?"
"Not me!"
"Do you know that is a privilege to ride in this…?
"Mommy, he won't stop burping!"
"I will after I finish my song."
"You will stop now if you ever want to see your PSP again!"
"…Anyway, the reviews for the movie are supposed to be…"
If you are a parent, I know you've been there, done that. So it's not surprising that most of us can't speak in complete sentences. We simply haven't had much practice.
My husband was the first of us to accomplish that feat that night. It was only a three-word sentence, "We need gas," but I high-fived him for his efforts anyway.
After he pumped our gas, we both went into the station to buy a newspaper and some gum. My husband prides himself on using people's names when speaking with someone, even if he doesn't know them. Since "Have a nice day" comes out of his mouth so frequently, it really can't be considered a full sentence. Adding the person's name, however, qualifies it.
When we left I asked him, "Did you just call her Weed?"
After high-fiving me for my first complete sentence, he answered, "Yep."
"Strange name. Spelling?"
"W-E-I-D."
I didn't know how to break it to him. That person's name tag must've said, "We ID." It's an easy enough mistake. If the person wasn't accommodating enough to place a space between "We" and "ID", she deserved to be called "Weed". It'll dawn on my husband eventually. But I couldn't find the words to tell him.
During dinner, we practiced our complete sentences.
"This is a great salad."
"My spaghetti is good."
"So, how was your day?"
"Oh my God! Her name wasn't Weid!"
We got better and better until it felt almost normal again to say a noun and a verb in the same breath.
By the time we arrived at the movie theatre, I felt so confident that I started a conversation with an older gentleman sitting next to me.
"Those are nice socks." Okay, the subject could've been more relevant, but it was the only thing I could think of. I mean… they were argyle.
He was gracious, however, having once been in our shoes. (That was a metaphor; it had nothing to do with the sock thing.)
He said, "Thanks, I buy them because they're easier to match up."
"Yeah… I don't have a huge problem with that." I pulled up my pant leg to show him my purple knee highs with pink and white daisies.
Okay, I bombed. I stuffed popcorn into my mouth before I said or did something even more stupid and let my husband handle the next inquiry.
"Great seats, huh?" the man said, referring to the fact that we were sitting directly in front of the handicapped section with not a wheelchair in sight.
"My husband answered, "Yeah, unless three crippled basketball players with large hairdos come in."
Crash and burn. I handed him the popcorn. Perhaps a complete sentence was not necessarily needed that time.
You can reach Laura at lsnyder@lauraonlife.com Or visit her website www.lauraonlife.com for more columns and info about her books.