Columns
A Teetering Balance
Our federal democracy is seen as having three equal branches that keep our democracy by equally asserting restraints on one another. The Legislative Branch plays its part by having 435 representatives elected for 2-year terms by citizens throughout the country along with 100 senators elected for 6-year terms. These just over 500 individuals have many functions but they really have only one power, providing or restricting funds to themselves and to the other two branches of government, the Executive and Judicial Branches.
The Executive Branch has thousands of functionaries but its most powerful executive is the President who directly and indirectly heads the military and countless other divisions of that diverse branch. Each of those often nameless bureaucracies has untold, often nameless, functionaries whose functions may hold the key to whether our government functions.
The Judicial Branch is easy to generally designate but much more difficult for the populace and the other two branches to corral as the Judicial Branch has generally defined itself since Marbury v. Madison in 1803. In fact, the Judicial Branch jealously and vigorously spends much of its time struggling to make sure the other two branches do not infringe on its powers, the chief of which is to define what the law allows the other two branches to do.
This theory of a three equal and separate foundation of our democracy works well as long as the powers of each branch remain truly separate and fairly balanced and each branch is composed of greatly dispersed functionaries. It is not a novel observation that our great democracy has remained democratic, mostly, because it remains diverse, dispersed and divided. When power becomes concentrated in a particular individual or individuals or branch, democracy suffers and internecine competitions may arise. Such theoretical and rhetorical battles can, as our Civil War proved, break out into real battles as one or two or even all three of the branches seek dominance.
Currently, we have members of each branch asserting efforts to imprint upon our whole country the vision of a few executives, followed by a few judges, both entities being subject to the status of financial hostages from a powerful few in the Legislative Branch. Now, some may analyze our current imbroglio as evidence our three-branch theory is simply working itself out in practice. That could be true. However, I hypothesize our Founding Fathers may have neglected the Fourth Branch of our social/governmental structure, the citizenry. Normally we have an electorate that, while unhappy perhaps, still finds a way to “soldier on”.
Our current social intercourse pits about one-half of America against the other half, sort of like the times of theDred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857 that led to the Civil War. Much as when a large portion of the United States agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court that African Americans were not citizens while another large portion disagreed. Many Americans today either agree or disagree with Birthright Citizenship and several other issues. One President and at least one federal judge come down on opposite sides of this citizenship issue and probably several others.
Such matters being seen diametrically opposite by each of two of our branches and both branches awaiting input from the Legislative and more importantly the public, creates a situation where our national soul may be at war with itself. What is called for is much more equal and reasonable input from each branch, especially that Fourth Branch, the populace.
Peace In Our Time
In his Inaugural Address President Trump told us his two main goals were to be a unifier and a peace maker. Most of us can applaud those aims. Also, most people, whether MAGA or Trump Haters realize such laudable and difficult objectives will take some time. Even skeptics must allow for a country as divided as America to be incrementally and slowly to coalesce behind anyone who announces such commendable, if unlikely, achievements. After all, even Jesus has had over two thousand years to reign as the Prince of Peace and the whole world seems still bent on committing either genocide or suicide. Perhaps we should, at least, allow President Trump more than a couple of weeks. While not convinced by his first term nor his actions thereafter, I for one can reserve final judgment. On the other hand, President Trump, in my opinion, has not made an auspicious start.
You may recall, Gentle Reader, that during his first term President Trump sought to restrict all Muslims from immigrating to America. Several of the countries we seek to have peaceful relations with are majority adherents of Islam. The U.S. has about four million Muslim citizens. The earth has a population of about two billion Muslims; that is one Muslim out of every four humans. To have a peaceful world America must have a leader who does not hate Muslims.
At his inauguration President Trump had a Catholic bishop, a Protestant cleric and a Jewish rabbi, but no Islamic imam. There were, also, numerous secular figures involved. While some citizens of the United States might believe that there should be no emphasis on any religious faith in our government based on the First Amendment, it has been an American tradition to involve religion in our inaugurations. This probably does no harm as long as all faiths are welcome. However, the exclusion of Islam from President Trump’s ceremony was obviously by his preference. Such exclusion did not help either national unity or the cause of peace.
What President Trump could do is to begin referring to America’s religious tradition as a Judeo-Christian-Islamic one; after all, each of the three faiths worship the same god and have many of the same rituals. Such a gesture by our new President would encourage the populace and especially the news media to include one-fourth of our world family in our aspirations for unity and peace. I doubt if such a magnanimous gesture by our new leader would escape notice and, I predict it would receive heartfelt gratitude.
Those Who Serve
January 20, 2025 America swears in its new president for a four-year term. A president who just completed a four-year term will leave office on that same date. Countless public servants will also be leaving as countless replacements will move in. Throughout the United States, local, city/town, county and state officials will be switching roles as the rest of us juggle our past and future servants’ identities and duties. These offices will not all change on the 20th or even during the same month or year. Of course, most of us barely take note of the shifting federal servants much less who is figuring our taxes or keeping track of our real and personal property, enforcing our laws or chasing down rabid animals. We take almost everything any of our multiple governments do without a second thought, unless we or our family needs a service.
But as one who has sought elective public office on several occasions, I appreciate the angst our elected and appointed public workers suffer. My first political campaign was for the nomination for Prosecuting Attorney; I was unopposed. I was convinced the world recognized my superior talents. That fall I lost the general election; I was comforted by telling myself the public had not appreciated its mistake. However, I have never completely recovered, although the person who beat me and I later became respectful friends.
Then, two years later I ran for judge and won. I just knew the public had recovered from its political dystopia. Thereafter, I ran for judge every six years for thirty years, but was unopposed in each primary and general election. However, until the filing date closed each cycle, I held my breath as all office seekers probably do. Even an uncontested election calls forth anxiety, although each time I convinced myself no one had cause to run against me. And it was not just my welfare I was responsible for; my staff, not to mention my family, relied on my status too.
Well, Gentle Reader, you probably right away figured out what I meant to say today, but I will continue to say it anyway. Most people quickly criticize their public servants, but few of us acknowledge their precarious predicament and their essential roles. Many of them expend great energy and significant amounts of money for the privilege of operating our democracy. For me, they deserve thanks; so, Thanks!
Leadership
President Biden has one more week as president to help bind up our nation’s wounds. America’s electorate is almost evenly divided by MAGA supporters and anti-MAGA supporters. Going to a favorite coffee shop or pub has taken on a certain ennui for many of us who used to look forward to seeing friends and discussing timely issues. What used to be lively and enlightening conversations has morphed into dreaded exercises in avoiding issues of substance. The nation’s political discourse has devolved from constructive give and take to animus. Important issues are currently not worth the disappointment to risk discussing. Leadership is needed to encourage us all to open our minds so we can face many important issues that, if not faced, may do real harm to our country and perhaps others.
That is the premise behind the prescient article by Indiana University Law Professor Timothy William Waters published January 06, 2025 via Politico, four years after the incident at our capitol. Professor Waters calls for President Joe Biden to pardon the rioters as an act that would help bridge our nation’s great divide between MAGA and anti-MAGA. Such a magnanimous and courageous act would speak to both sides and could apply some healing balm to our fractious society.
I doubt Professor Waters believes his well-reasoned analysis of the dangers of a house divided is an original thought. Someone wise enough to advocate for such a brave act of leadership almost certainly is simply recommending a particular treatment for our ailing condition. Wise people have realized for thousands of years that peace is more constructive and less destructive than war. I do not know Professor Waters but his article is written as one that demonstrates an attitude of helpfulness not hubris.
From Jesus to Abraham Lincoln to Gerald Ford and many more, we humans have long known that “malice towards none and charity for all” is not behavior that is only good for those we disagree with but for us too. Such acts as the mean-spirited treatment of Germany after WWI that led to WWII versus the Marshall Plan that re-made Germany into an ally after WWII, teach us that vengeance is not only morally corrupt and selfish but ignorant and self-destructive.
Pardons are to presidents what mediation, probation and parole are to courts. They acknowledge the sins but affirm the possibility of our nation of laws whose mission seeks redemption, not retribution. President Gerald Ford by his pardon of President Richard Nixon used his presidential pardon as it was intended. He helped bind our nation’s wounds at a time we sorely needed it. I realized this and wrote a Gavel Gamut column about it when President Ford died in 2007. I have included it as part of this column.
Perhaps Professor Waters’ article will encourage President Biden and possibly President Trump to show the same type of leadership President Ford did.
PARDON ME, PRESIDENT FORD
(Week of January 8, 2007)
President Gerald Ford died December 26, 2006. In a life filled with public service, he will always be best known for his pardon of President Nixon in 1974.
President Nixon personally chose Gerald Ford to replace the disgraced Vice-President Spiro Agnew who resigned in 1973 amid disclosures of bribery while Agnew was Governor of Maryland.
Vice-President Ford served under President Nixon until Nixon resigned in August of 1974. One month after President Nixon resigned, President Ford issued him a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed while president.
At the time, I and most Americans were calling for a complete investigation of the Watergate debacle and especially Nixon’s involvement in it. It was a time of a media feeding frenzy and blood in the water.
President Ford took the unprecedented step of going personally before Congress and flatly stating that President Nixon and then Vice-President Ford had no deal to pardon Nixon if he would resign.
I recall how dubious I was when President Ford stated that he issued the pardon only to help our country to start healing from the loss of confidence caused by Watergate.
Yet, after a few months I began to have second thoughts about my initial reaction to the pardon. I began to see how much courage it took for President Ford to go straight into the anti-Nixon firestorm sweeping the United States.
As a country, we were almost paralyzed by the partisan fighting at home and the War in Viet Nam. We needed a new direction and a renewed spirit.
Surely President Ford with his twenty-two (22) years in Congress knew he was committing political suicide by not giving us our pound of flesh. Still, he put his country first. Of course, the country rewarded his sacrifice by booting him from office and electing President Jimmy Carter to replace him.
But during the campaign of 1976, when President Ford came to Evansville on April the 23rd, I took my son, Jim, out of school and we went to the Downtown Walkway to cheer the man who put country above self.
For while William Shakespeare may almost always get his character analysis right, when it came to President Ford, “The good he did lived after him.” Julius Caesar, Act III, sc. ii.
Even President Carter, one of America’s most courageous and best former presidents said of President Ford:
“President Ford was one of the most admirable public servants I have ever known.”
And when it came to the pardon of President Nixon, Senator Ted Kennedy, while admitting that he had severely criticized the pardon in 1974, said that he had come to realize that:
“The pardon was an extraordinary act of courage that historians recognize was truly in the national interest.”
So, President Ford, since even your political opponents came to appreciate your courage and goodness, I am confident that you have long ago “pardoned” all of us who doubted you back when we needed your leadership.
Predictions
It is the new year, a time when we humans have often either savored our accomplishments, reflected on our regrets, dreamed of our hopes or dreaded our fears. The new year has long been a time when people of many cultures have analyzed the past and predicted the future. As Yogi Berra might have said, the future is hard to predict. However, that has never stopped us from trying. As for me, I find regretting the past only makes it more regrettable and dreading the unknown future only leads to self-fulfilling prophecies. On the other hand, attempting to predict the as yet uncontrollable events ahead will probably do little harm as the world will ignore us anyway. Ergo, I will boldly, if ignorantly, publish a few of my predictions as my experience has been hardly anyone will pay attention so no harm will result.
First, I will not lose weight nor exercise more unless an increasing frequency of nighttime bathroom trips qualifies. Nor will I read the many potentially life-altering books I have in my library. Second, I will not help Peg more around the house nor spend less money on chips and dip and less time in front of the telly. Third, none of my complaints about any public officials will result in any constructive impacts as, first of all they will not be read and secondly none of the officials will think they need to make any changes.
When it comes to generic suggestions, such as I and many others have been making for many years, our state and federal governments may take umbrage, if they even take notice, but not one of our calls for peace in the Middle East or anywhere else will be heeded. In fact, I predict our national leaders will swallow the false intelligence once again fed to us by Israel, such as “weapons of mass destruction”, and we will support a war against Iran as we enable Israel’s theft and destruction of Palestine and Syria.
I do predict Ukraine’s invasion by Russia will finally reach a stalemate on the terms I predicted just after it began three years ago; and, after we have expended billions of our treasure. Russia will stop in return for a permanent seizure of Crimea that they have occupied since 2014 and the permanent occupation of a substantial portion of Ukraine east of the Dnipro River with Ukraine to maintain its ownership and control over the port of Odessa on the Black Sea. I further predict Russia will not help rebuild Ukraine, but America will to the tune of many more billions of our dollars.
Well, Gentle Reader, I suppose you can tell why I find predictions of the future as unhelpful as Yogi might have. I do have many more fears and hopes relating to our fragile globe’s future, but I find the concentration upon them debilitating. And, as it is the new year, I will just succumb to muddling on through 2025. “Happy” New Year to you all.
They Deserve A Special Place In ….
Gentle Reader, as we face a New Year my thoughts are ever hopeful we have learned something worthwhile from the years that have gone before us. I realize this has been the dream of most of you too. However, we all know there are those whose thoughts and behaviors never turn towards improvement, but in fact, are often the very things that need to be improved.
The best example I know of placing such cretins where they deserve to be is The Divine Comedy (The Inferno) written by Dante degli Alighieri (1265-1321) in the 14th century. Dante did not just suffer the infuriating faux pas and social sins of people such as Dante’s political enemies in Italy, he created an elaborate hell of deserved punishments and placed them in it. To that I say AMEN! Perhaps, we should at a minimum list and expose some of the boorish behaviors that call for condemnation. You, Gentle Reader, will surely wish to recognize many others that quickly come to mind.
I will lead with those lazy louts who defile our roads, streets and sidewalks with their litter. Is it too burdensome to put one’s trash in a designated receptacle? Oh, and that includes cigar and cigarette butts, you buttheads. I humbly suggest such losers should have to dine off unwashed dinner plates previously used to gather stockyard feces.
Then there are the geniuses who ”child-proof” medicine bottles by making them completely unopenable except by a chainsaw. This genre of misled child saviors should acknowledge that if a medicine bottle that contains medicine for children and the elderly cannot be opened, it does not protect but endangers the intended classes. I think a reasonable punishment for such bottle cappers would be to have to open every can or bottle only with their teeth.
Another group of public minded workers in need of training are traffic officers who, even once a traffic accident scene is secure and any injured are removed, fail to direct vehicles so that people lined up for miles in each direction can continue on. Often officers forget that most of the world’s citizens were not involved in the accident but do have other things to do. A proper sanction might be making such unconcerned public servants always be the last in line for Taylor Swift concert tickets then telling them it is sold out when they finally reach the ticket seller.
And what about those makers of products such as expensive clothes who are so concerned that some miscreant might steal one of the thousands of items on the shelves that they stick or staple or otherwise attach labels to each product that can only be removed by damaging the product? Perhaps a label should be affixed to their forehead with a staple as a reminder not everyone is a thief.
Another place that reciprocal treatment might be called for is drive-through establishments, such as coffee shops, where cups of scalding liquid are filled so full there is no way to handle them without the liquid splashing upon one’s lap? Do the baristas get some satisfaction from seeing us drive away in fits and jerks? Workers at such establishments might be sentenced to a lifetime of sitting in a hot tub of tar heated to a toasty 103° Fahrenheit.
Now, I know we have just skimmed the greasy surface of situations that call for divine, or at least heartfelt, retribution for behaviors we wish we could see change for 2025. On the other hand, Dante knew he could not expiate all of Italy’s 14th century uncalled for behaviors. He just did the worst he could. I call for the same deliverance from the jackanapes who show no concern for the rest of us.
You, Gentle Reader, might desire the same including the extinction of newspaper columnists who campaign for never to be achieved outcomes.