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The Prairie Sirens
Peg and I like living in the country. Our nearest neighbor’s residence is within sight but not sound. Even the occasional gunshot is but a faint report. No one just walks over as they used to when we lived in town. Of course, with ’Ole 19 raging no one would do so in town either. So town living resembles country living for now. Perhaps a few million vaccinations will reprise neighborliness. Although I find myself gradually becoming acclimated to the solitude. I do not believe I am as yet completely misanthropic but I can sense the progression toward it. Even the occasional arrival of a UPS or FedEx driver now causes an initially negative reaction. There was a time such an event brought forth excitement. Now not so much. My current reaction is more like someone whose emersion in a good book is interrupted by his or her spouse’s request for attention to some task in need of immediate attention. Really, is there anything going on in our COVID-19 world that cannot wait? After all, if Congress and the president do not deem matters essential, why does Peg?
Anyway, life on the prairie in winter, especially during the pandemic, has a baleful bucolia about it. One is aware of the potential for evil in the outside world but the solitude insulates the senses from it. One begins to gradually retreat from the angst brought on by the cacophonous environment that assaults us every time we interact with our complex culture. On the prairie such things as politics and boorish behavior recede from one’s daily consciousness. If a person can detach him or herself from television, self-delusion can seep through the veil of awareness. Maybe 2020 was a bad dream and merely the detour we have had to take to get to the future.
But the sirens of prairie reverie can lull us into hopes that if we ignore the world it will leave us alone and, more importantly, that all will be well. It is similar to our hopes that by eating only chocolate we can lose weight or that more wine is the answer to depression. When the chocolate and wine are gone our clothes still will not fit and our problems remain. As we learned from Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), simple living and a desire to eschew government do not result in solutions to complicated societal problems. The hard work of day-to-day living and operating a country cannot be accomplished by wishing it so from the prairie. Somebody has to turn on the lights.
I may find myself drifting toward a desire for a reclusive Elysian prairie existence, but I expect hard scrabble involvement will be called for, at least by millions of other citizens, if I want to continue to enjoy my detachment.
A Season of Hope
It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Last night about 7:00 p.m. Peg excitedly called for me to join her outside as the dark gray sky gave way to a sliver of moon accompanied by Jupiter and Saturn nearing a point of conjunction, the same phenomenon that occurred about 2,000 years ago. It feels good to anticipate the completion of the astronomical wonder that will occur on December 21, the winter solstice. Perhaps we can consider the return of the “Christmas Star” as a harbinger of a better year to come as this painful year of 2020 begins to recede.
That is the traditional interpretation of the Christmas Story, overcoming current adversity and hoping for a brighter future. But many people are not just looking to the stars and dreaming about deliverance. There has been a world-wide effort to achieve effective treatments and prevention of COVID-19. The marvel of the creation of several efficacious vaccines in less than one year is unprecedented. It is a true Christmas type story brought about by the hard work of countless scientists, governmental leaders, workers and volunteers in several countries. When one thinks that the first reported case of polio was before the beginning of the 20th century and that it took over half of that century to develop a polio vaccine, we can appreciate what has been accomplished with the Corona Virus in less than one year.
And it is not just those people who have been directly affected by COVID-19 and those who have been directly involved in the battle to defeat it that have exhibited strength of character during 2020. Life has gone on. People have continued to do their jobs and care for others in the face of fear and restrictions. It is truly heroic that as we have endured over 300,000 deaths from COVID-19, groceries get delivered, utilities remain on, governmental services continue, trash gets picked up, etc., etc., etc. The Christmas spirit triumphs. Thank you to all who have refused to succumb to despair and who have put self-sacrifice over fear to provide for others.
Other signs of the season and the spirit of goodwill among people are the celebrations that have occurred all over America. Some of these celebrations are connected to various religious faiths. In the United States Amendment I to our Constitution protects such practices. But we also have many secular celebrations emphasizing hope, peace, reconciliation and our shared cultural histories. While I have enjoyed many such events in numerous places over the years, I was particularly struck by the Christmas Parade in Pawhuska, Osage County, Oklahoma this past week. Its theme evoked all that is good about community pride and gave evidence of confidence that 2021 will erase the angst of 2020.
The Christmas parade of December 5, 2020 was sponsored by the Pawhuska Chamber of Commerce and was led by its Executive Director Joni Nash on horseback. The parade celebrated the rich history of the Osage Nation as well as the service of military veterans. The live-streamed event featured Osage Princess Fiona Armede Red Eagle and four Osage Chiefs as Parade Marshals: James Roan Gray, Scott Bighorse, John D. Red Eagle and Geoffrey Standing Bear. As each Chief was introduced various accomplishments of the Chief and the Osage Tribe were entertainingly and informatively described by volunteer announcers Debbie and Ron Reed. It was an impressive and extensive list of achievements. And it felt right to have those accomplishments included as proof that the Chiefs’ visions for the tribe and the whole Osage County community were firmly embedded in a rich history with plans for a bright future. I did note that Debbie appeared to be attempting to distance herself from Ron’s Clark Griswold type tie.
Regardless, if you would like to view the parade, type the following address in your Internet browser:
https://www.facebook.com/pawhuskachamber/videos/410220680426431/
Such celebrations of the American spirit whenever and wherever they take place are welcome and interesting. But particularly this year, while the planets align as we are exiting the dark side of 2020, it helps to look back at good times in the past and to plan confidently for better times in the future.
The Christmas Planets
Peg bought me a telescope for my birthday. With the assigned birthday of Jesus rapidly approaching Peg and I are eagerly anticipating a view of the Christmas Star on 2020’s Winter Solstice, December the twenty-first at 4:02 a.m. Although we plan to take what the military might call a “gentleman’s” approach and start our search about 6:00 p.m. that day. We see no need to get up at the crack of dawn to “discover” the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the southwest sky. After all, the Milky Way galaxy has been around almost from the beginning of the universe, that is 13.7 billion years, so billions of other humans have already seen the “Star in the east”.
According to the Gospel of Matthew wise men from the east, probably Babylonia or Persia, while looking to the west toward Bethlehem observed the astonishingly bright “star”. Some scholars posit they may have related it to the messianic prophecies contained in the Old Testament book of Malachi, “Unto you shall the sun of righteousness arise and healing is in his wings”. A clue as to the birth of this promised messenger was the term “sun”. As the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, marked the return of all the good things brought by sunlight, many philosophers and theologians have attached the birth of Jesus to the time of that event on the celestial calendar. And, since nine months before December’s Winter Solstice is the Vernal or Spring Equinox, many have postulated that the Immaculate Conception was in March of that same year. Of course, these concepts are part of the Christian tradition. In the United States, Article I of our Constitution guarantees each of us the right to worship or not worship as we see fit. I am neither qualified nor inclined to give ecclesiastical advice. I am referring to the astronomical phenomenon of what may have been taken as a sign by heavenly observers during eight months of 7 B.C. when Jupiter and Saturn appeared in conjunction to give the appearance of an extremely bright star.
And my only qualifications to give opinions on star gazing are that I have seen the Broadway musical Hair, have surfed the Internet for historical information and have been given a telescope. On the other hand, I offer the observation that that is not unlike the so-called authority of cable news anchors on many other subjects.
Anyway, when it comes to Jesus’ birthdate no one really knows. But we do know that Pope Julius I in 336 A.D. wanted to counteract the pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice when he decreed December 25th to be the date of Jesus’ birth. The pope was using the Roman calendar not the Gregorian calendar ergo the actual date of the Winter Solstice varied from the 25th. Regardless, by first setting Jesus’ birthdate in December scholars could then subtract nine months and set His conception in March at the Vernal Equinox.
Behind our cabin at JPeg Osage Ranch is a high hill we call Peg’s Peak or Mogul Margaret’s Mountain. When the galaxy gets all aligned on December 21st Peg and I plan to go to the top of our promontory and gaze upon the Christmas Star that has not been seen in this configuration for 800 years. We are trying to convince ourselves that we will again be atop our observatory the next time the Christmas Star appears which will be March 2080. On the other hand, it might be prudent for us to celebrate now. Merry Christmas!
The War Effort
’Ole 19 neither toils nor spins yet it has managed to change the course of history. But, as Jesus advised in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-34), we should not lose the present worrying about the future. Or, more poetically and succinctly, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”. In practical terms we might be well advised to do what we can now as we wait for the coming cure, probably to begin this month but not to be ecumenical until the end of 2021.
With the current rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths and closing businesses the “evil thereof” will claim thousands more before vaccines and herd immunity vanquish it. And just as America could have succumbed to another unprovoked and unexpected attack, Pearl Harbor December 07, 1941, we could bury our heads in the sand and not fight back while many die or go broke needlessly awaiting the cure.
Or we can do what the Greatest Generation did and make the sacrifices necessary to save others and ourselves. Unlike those heroes who refused to lose and took up arms to win World War II, we do not have to toil in the defense plants or die in battle for four years of war. All we need to do is wear face masks, wash our hands and maintain safe distances as we carefully patronize eateries and other people-gathering businesses and engage in public events and social gatherings for the remaining few months of our own war with ’Ole 19.
Some of us may need to take more precautions than others. Differing levels of isolation may be advisable for those of us in particularly susceptible categories. But life must proceed. We need not all forego all activity. However, we can all support “the war effort” with sensible measures.
No one wants to be the last soldier to die in our current war. Or, more importantly, none of us wants to be spreading potential death to others. Of course, there are many important and desired activities people may choose to engage in. As with all of life, things are a matter of degree. We each should maintain our right to our own choices. After all, the right to choose is what makes Americans Americans.
On the other hand, our choices should not be made without regard to their consequences to ourselves but more importantly to others. Behaviors can be a matter of free choice while still being responsible. And who knows, maybe we can help keep hard-working store owners afloat as we help ourselves and others.
Passion Put To Use
Gentle Reader, if you read last week’s Gavel Gamut you will recall we were considering Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations of America as a country based on law. De Tocqueville’s parents, Hervé and Louise de Tocqueville, had barely escaped the guillotine during the French Revolution (1789-1799). De Tocqueville was born in 1805 so he and his family had an intimate personal understanding of the dangers of a nation ruled by individual people, not laws. De Tocqueville studied law and served as a magistrate. He knew the value of French philosopher Montesquieu’s theory of a government formed with a separation of balanced and competing powers (legislative, executive and judicial). And he agreed with the morality of English philosopher John Locke’s (1632-1704) theories that governments should serve their people whom nature had endowed with the rights to life, liberty and property.
When people call for revolution they might wish to re-visit Locke, Montesquieu and de Tocqueville or one could refer to those more contemporary English philosophers, The Beatles. As John Lennon sang while backed by the cabal of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in “Revolution”:
♫ You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world.
….
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know you can count me out.
….
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We’d all love to see the plan. ♫
Unfortunately, Mark David Chapman did not get the message. But Lennon’s untimely loss is an example of how ideology and ignorance can get weaponized as opposed to de Tocqueville’s prescient observation about how the United States holds its “revolutions” every four years via the ballot box. Americans may get quite passionate about their politics, but as Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) might philosophize, “It (should be) a passion put to use”, not destruction. (How Do I Love Thee).
A Legal Revolution
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a Frenchman who studied American society during a nine-month tour in 1831 when the United States were still simmering with vitriolic political animus from the 1824 and 1828 elections between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Adams was elected by the House of Representatives in 1824 and Jackson won via the Electoral College in 1828. After neither election did the United States fall into chaos, even though Jackson won both the popular vote and a plurality, but not a majority, of the Electoral College vote yet Adams grabbed the presidency in 1824.
Four men ran for president in 1824, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William Crawford. Because the Electoral College vote was split in such a way that none of the four received a majority, as required to be elected President, under the Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution a “contingent” election was held in the House of Representatives. Each state’s delegation was given one vote and Adams was elected. Jackson and his supporters alleged that Adams and Clay had entered into a “Corrupt Bargain” to shift Clay’s votes to Adams. Regardless, Adams was elected by the House and the country moved on until 1828 when Jackson ran against Adams again.
In his treatise on American democracy de Tocqueville defined America’s presidential election as “a revolution at law” and described it as follows:
“Every four years, long before the appointed (presidential election) day arrives, the election becomes the greatest, and one might say the only, affair occupying men’s minds…. As the election draws near intrigues grow more active and agitation is more lively and widespread. The citizens divide up into several camps.… The whole nation gets into a feverish state.”
De Tocqueville’s ultimate verdict on America’s democracy was encapsulated in his general verdict on how political controversies were ultimately resolved. His observation was that:
“In America there is hardly a political question which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.”
De Tocqueville’s opinion was that the American manner of resolving political issues without bloodshed worked because, unlike European monarchies, the United States citizens respected the law and they did so because they had the right to both create it and change it. Since we get to choose our legislators who write our election laws and because we can change the laws by changing whom we elect if we are unhappy, we accept the laws as written including who is ultimately declared the winner of a current election.
The laws we have the right to create and the right to change include filing for an elected office, running for that office, who counts the votes, how they are counted, as well as how and when someone can legally contest an election. That legal procedure applies to all facets of an election cycle. Each state’s legislature has the authority to establish its own procedures in this regard as long as they do not violate federal law.
As an Indiana Circuit Court Judge I was involved in a recount of a congressional race, a county clerk general election, a county council general election, a town council election and a county council primary election. The Indiana legislature had enacted and published a clear statutory procedure for each type of election contest, including what role each public official should play in any recount. The statutes demanded total openness and media access to ensure the public could have confidence that if all involved followed the law a clear winner would be fairly determined. There were time limits, controls and transparency. After a recount result was certified in each contest life moved on and the eventual losers and their supporters accepted the results because they had had their “day in court”; that is, democratically enacted law was followed not the arbitrary or partisan activity of individuals.
De Tocqueville compared America’s hotly contested democratic elections to a surging river that strains at its banks with raging waters then calms down and carries on peacefully once the results have been properly certified. From my own experience with several elections and after the recounts of some of them, I agree with de Tocqueville’s analogy.
That is not to say I am for or against any type of recount for any office. I absolutely have no position on whether any candidate for any office should concede or contest anything. My position is simply that as long as the law is properly followed our democracy can handle either circumstance.