Keeping that Republic

it matters more than we think

I write this newsletter to remind us that consequences, intentional or unexpected, result from actions in the human experience. Some of those actions include passive choices or decisions to reject or stop something. Perhaps I should have labeled it consequences but think there is generally a cause and effect to consider. You may convince me otherwise, if you want to discuss.

I am not interested in discussing politix for the sake of partisanship. Plenty of folks bloviate on that already and my views are no more or less valid than anyone else’s. So, I consciously strive to avoid mere partisan chatter, though it may appear I fail some days.

I believe passionately in institutions because they almost invariably transcend any of us. I also believe that institutions in this country often, but admittedly not always, deliver more equitable, predictable opportunities for behavior. Perhaps that is nave but strong institutions can more likely withstand the whims of the petty, the short termers, and the illegitimate because of their broad support beyond a few individuals. But those institutions require nurturing as do plants in any garden or children who we hope thrive.

My interest is not to alter anyone’s politics but to increase measured, civil conversation as we confront a myriad of complexities into the foreseeable future where those actions and consequences kick in. I may not like your views on something like raisins (long standing humor between me and my husband) because I overdid them as a four year old but I will defend your right to eat them. Silly example but you get the point.

I make two exceptions to the defending of one’s views: I never countenance violence en lieu of respecting laws. None of us is above the law so violence becomes a circumvention around laws we don’t like. No. No. No. No. It’s too easy for it to become a rationalization for ignoring answers that don’t suit us personally. We need discuss, then we need decide collectively. None of us win every conversation.

I also utterly oppose mistreating pets: they are defenseless, loving creatures. Anyone who kicks a dog, strangles a turtle, or beats a cat incurs my wrath more likely than anything else because that poor creature has few defenses. The threat brings tears to my eyes as I type.

All of this takes us to Constitution Day, which 17 September most definitely is.

That magnificent, relatively brief set of seven articles and twenty-seven amendments is the gift our Founders brought us after a long summer in hot 1787 Philadelphia. The document is imperfect: it does not remedy the horror of slavery. It does not provide equality for Native Americans, Blacks, women, and others. It certainly had some limitations, not the least of which was an apparent assumption that future generations would include political figures completely self-aggrandizing, pernicious, or scofflaws.

But it is a glorious array of words and beliefs. Every single word is part of an overall message no other society received from its forebears; none. The Constitution’s amazing balance of power between branches of government also operates by juxtaposing levels of government.

It is intended to make us slow down for deliberate actions rather than falling prey to same rapid and rapacious reactions of crowd of sports fans whose team never won it all; those folks tend to destroy things in the name of celebration, only to wonder later how the street lights broke, the store prices rose because of break ins, and the like.

The document is not so inflexible that we are living in the late Eighteenth century with people defecating out of third floor walk ups windows, smallpox/measles/cholera, no electricity, no mass transit, or almost exclusively agricultural work though some legal interpreters seem to think that is the world they want reintroduce.

The Founders gave us a means by which to amend the text, whether by Congress, then state approval or by constitutional convention. We don’t have to start completely fresh every time we decide we need change. That lugubrious path means the nationwide consideration of change rather than melting to it in the heat of any particular moment. I may not like all the amendments but the document does not preclude amending an amended version, either.

We would all do well to read it more often while holding our elected officials, our fellow citizens, and ourselves to its ideas. Again, it won’t solve things elsewhere but we only have control over ourselves any way. In the post-World War II world, Americans began believing someone mandated we run the world. Sure, we had some momentum because we were vital to securing the Axis’s defeat by 1945 but no one gave us the responsiblity of governing every other nation or assuring their particular policy choices. The irony of forgetting that is a classic mistake we make. We forget to tend to our own governing much of the time.

So, raise a toast of whatever beverage you care to use to the Constitution. I suspect the delegates from the original twelve states who deliberated (no Rhode Island representatives were party to this process), argued, struggled, and ultimately signed this pithy little piece on 17 September 1787 celebrated before mounting their wagons or onto horseback for their treks from Philadelphia to Charleston or Cranston.

Upon signatures being affixed, the document went to the states for ratification, as amendments still do. Delaware was the first to ratify while Rhode Island, non-attendees at the constitutional convention who feared the loss of liberties, brought the initial tranche to closure not quite three years later.

I didn’t grow up studying this document. In Thailand, the history of the armed forces ignoring their written constitutions is legend. It was a relatively calm place as I lived there but rights were always selectively enforced for Thai citizens. Similarly, Colombia has a long, troubled history with violence as the ultimate arbiter in society rather than law. The Constitution did not call for that but Colombians ignored the words of the Constitution in practice.

No, we have not entirely met the Constitutional obligations in our country throughout history. Plessy v Ferguson in 1896, codifying “Separate by equal” barely improved upon appalling the Dred Scott v. Sanford 1857 decision dehumanizing African Americans by returning them to owners. But we have always had a functioning, sometimes in fits and starts, government and society moving forward towards a more Perfect Union.

It is so angst-inducing, on this Constitution day, to recall Benjamin Franklin’s wry caution about what the delegates in his city provided the nation that September. Old Ben agreed we have “a Republic, if we can keep it.”

The burden is on us and the threats are from within.

As you see me write regularly, that Republic is under much stress. There isn’t someone else to call like Ghostbusters. It’s up to each of us to keep it or we will never get it back. The implications for each and every one of us are unimaginable, no matter the color of our skin, the gender designations of bathrooms we use, or the beliefs we have at this moment. Without that Constitutional Republic, the rule of law would disappear.

Think about that. Just consider how China operates with rule by law rather than rule of law.

Thank you for your time today and every day you read this newsletter. Thanks to the subscribers whose financial investment aids and motivates me. I genuinely welcome your responses much as I had two fascinating comments yesterday about the Mayflower departing from Plymouth and what immigration means for us as a society. Please keep cards and letters flowing.

Be well and be safe. FIN

The Constitution of the United States of America. 17 September 1787, retrieved at https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript