Dear Editor, (submitted Oct. 26, 2021 but not acknowledged or printed)
Former Congressman Garry Giffords’ disturbing list of violent and lethal attacks (Attacks on Politicians…Oct. 25, 2021) on US policymakers and other elected officials in increasingly unstable democracies missed two fundamental factors inflaming human passions.
The first. Democracies don’t work. Never have. Never will. Majority decisions rarely reflect reality. You can peg this habit to tribalism, cognitive dissonance, apathy, or simply gross individual ignorance regarding the multitude of disrupters that threaten everyone’s freedoms and security -- and the sustainability of our essential environmental infrastructure. But then you would miss the other underlying engineering flaw of our government and governance systems. The absence of justice.
They are both based on “independence” – a mental illusion
that exists nowhere in the known universe. This delusional principle
infects the human mind to prioritize freedom – and ignore
responsibility. Wise minds have always understood that acting
irresponsibly has negative consequences.
Read the preamble to the Constitution. It has six fundamental intentions that few people on earth would reject. Everything after the preamble (except a few Amendments) is largely responsible for inflaming most civil discontent. Too many laws passed with these are unjust. Our Constitution is a legal system, not a justice system. Its failure to “establish Justice” explains its failure to ‘insure domestic tranquility” and every other preamble intention.
Inscribed above the entrance
to the US Dept. of Justice is “Justice is the great interest of man on
earth. Wherever her temple stands, there is a foundation for social
security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race.”
For
those of us who have benefited from the status quo of our unjust system, it is hard
to imagine the lethal rage of those at the effect of it. It has been our
sustained comforts and the failure of our imagination that has been fueling
such discontent with our government and elected officials for decades.
From the Oklahoma City Bombing to the attacks on 9-11. Real or perceived
injustices drive rational minds to consider lethal violence when their
fundamental rights have no majority appeal in a flawed or non-existing
(international law) justice system.
The founders insisted on the
2nd Amendment as a check on any irresponsible government. The
founders also included our capacity to alter the Constitution.
Unfortunately, our dysfunctional two-party democratic system prevents that.
Thomas Ricks, in his book “First Principles” identified the word “virtue” as a core value of the founders. It was used over 6000 times in the 120,000 archived digitized documents he searched. Virtue appeared more than “freedom”.
Abraham Lincoln once wrote that our Declaration of Independence is our “Apple of Gold”. And our Constitution its ‘frame of silver’. It is guaranteed that things are going to get worse, a lot worse until our elected officials understand the need to consistently codify federal laws that are consistent with “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”. And start swearing an oath to protect these instead of an inherently flawed Constitution.
Once we fully grasp the reality of our global interdependence, the common phrase “US interests” would be replaced by ‘humanities interests’. Then for the first time in US history, our nation would have a virtuous foreign policy. And laws that finally reflect every American’s flag pledge of “liberty and justice for all”.
Chuck Woolery chuck@igc.org
240-997-2209
315 Dean Dr., Rockville, MD 20851
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