The pictures today are from the "Spirit Tree"

You pays yer money and ye takes your choice

Unless you are a once-upon-a-time English Teacher, you may not remember all of Huckleberry Finn’s adventures in that extraordinary story by Mark Twain, but you’ll surely remember that for all his unschooled naivete, Huck wants to set things right... he wants good people to be safe. His mind is open to the possibility that what he has always though was the truth may not be truth at all. By chapter 28 he is coming to terms with the possibility that things are often not what they seem to be, and sometimes setting things right means running risks not just for himself but for the people he wants to keep safe. 

-----------from the opening of chapter 28:

...BY and by it was getting-up time. So I come down the ladder and started for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd been packing things in it -- getting ready to go to England. But she had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her hands, crying. I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would. I went in there and says:

"Miss Mary Jane, you can't bear to see people in trouble, and I can't -- most always. Tell me about it."

So she done it. And it was the slaves. I just expected it. She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't know HOW she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and the children warn't ever going to see each other no more -- and then busted out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says:

"Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't EVER going to see each other any more!"

"But they WILL -- and inside of two weeks -- and I KNOW it!" says I.

Laws, it was out before I could think! And before I could budge she throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN!

I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out. So I went to studying it out. I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many risks, though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly SAFER than a lie. I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it. Well, I says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. ---------------

Edward Snowden, the former technical assistant for the CIA who has leaked details of a top-secret American phone surveillance program, is “setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where it’ll go to.”  

I’m guessing Mr. Snowden thinks of himself as a new age Huck Finn... doing what should be done to set things right.  I don’t know how or what to think about it.  I’m skeptical that he has what Mark Twain put into his (and our) Huckleberry Finn.  We’ll see, I guess, as the Snowden story unfolds.

Some of the things we know about Snowden from the young man himself and from reporters’ inquiries:

• Snowden left the CIA and began working for Dell (which refused comment) and then private defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in 2009, which confirmed Snowden's employment. While at Booz, Snowden was assigned to work at NSA facilities in Japan and Hawaii. He told the Guardian he lived comfortably, making nearly $200,000 per year.
• Snowden was living in Waipahu, Hawaii, with his girlfriend last month when he copied the last documents and information he would release to The Washington Post and The Guardian. Neighbors told the Post that Snowden and his girlfriend were noticeably standoffish and regularly avoided conversation.
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• He told The Guardian that he hoped the surveillance programs, which began under the George W. Bush administration, would be curtailed by President Barack Obama. When the cellphone and Internet surveillance programs were expanded by Obama, Snowden said he felt compelled to expose them and protect Americans' privacy.
• Snowden told The Guardian that he has long been a champion of Internet freedom. His laptop is emblazoned with a sticker that reads: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation."
• According to the Post, Snowden gave $500 to Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign.
• Neighbors told the Post that Snowden and his girlfriend mysteriously packed up and disappeared from Hawaii in May. Since May 20, Snowden has been in Hong Kong alone. He told NSA supervisors that he was taking time off to receive treatment for epilepsy, which he was diagnosed with last year following a series of seizures. According to the Post, Snowden's mother also suffers from epilepsy.
• Hong Kong is a Chinese territory that enjoys relative autonomy. The country does have an extradition treaty with the U.S., however. According to The Associated Press, the extradition documents contain exceptions for political crimes, though AP sources said it's unlikely China would want to destabilize its relationship with the United States over Snowden, who has little political relevance in China.
• If extradited, Snowden faces considerable jail time for possible treason and aiding the enemy.
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