Tragedy and grace

Looking ahead

I am a citizen well into the span of my life. I have had the sheer joy and privilege of being a public servant and to represent our wonderful country overseas several times. I am perhaps more subdued in my public proclamations of patriotism as that is my preferred approach but I love this country desperately. I would not live elsewhere.

Today is a solemn yet hopeful day. A former president has surrendered to local officials in a jurisdiction where a jury of his peers indicted him on state charges regarding actions he and well over a dozen others committed to thwart the State of Georgia from registering the will of its voters in the 2020 presidential election.

I find nothing humorous or gleeful about this. I find it heartbreaking that anyone who took the same oath as I did—or offered contorted legal workarounds—likely attempted to override the votes of Georgians who eat, drink, change their skivvies, and ultimately will die just as the indicted figures will. The accused have no privileges on ignoring law nor should they get special treatment. The government similarly must prove its case under those same established criminal procedures. That the indicted include a former president of the United States is remarkable and tragic on so many levels.

Yet it is a day of grace for the nation that the rule of law brings us to this point. As I noted earlier this week, millions of Americans apparently believe everything is stacked against him when he claims he has done nothing wrong viz-a-viz an ever growing list of serious actions. The irony, of course, is he is quick to seek incarceration for opponents he claims, without more evidence that his word, they have done the very things for which he stands accused.. No one is perfect in his or her actions all of the time.

Rule of law means—assures, if we follow it—that the former president and those indicted with him will have the chance to refute the indictment in front of another jury of peers. None, repeat none of us should forget that the most basic tenet of our system is innocent until proven guilty. But the process must transpire.

In so many places I have either studied or worked, this vital public series of events would not occur. It simply would not because of personal animosities, bribes for or against the defendants, and violence. We saw violence, shockingly, on 6 January 2021 which none of us should forget. The argument it was merely a protest gone awry is absurd but still a justification for some. I saw that with my eyes on live television so nothing will change my eyes on that topic. It still haunts me.

I dispair for America as we ever more readily turn to violence to settle domestic differences. At its core, the gun violence so rampant in this same beautiful country is settling differences. Hard to accept but the act of shooting someone likely ends the differences for that day. The follow on effects, however, can be lasting, self-perpetuating our status as an inexplicable outlier among ‘developed, civilized’ nations. But I most definitely hope we NEVER resort to violence as our solution on either election disputes or differences on how to use rule of law. It won’t work in solving anything and it would only drag us down further.

The defendants had through today to surrender to the State of Georgia on the indictment unsealed last week. Each and every one has the right to a fair trial but that idea of fairness is not theirs to choose. The State of Georgia has well established criminal procedures for any and alldefendants if those procedures are allowed to work. But that means the indicted and the State must follow those rules. It’s again one of the treasures of our land that we, by and large, do precisely that.

I don’t know how the former president’s fate will end. I have my personal views as do all of you but I believe we need, as citizens across this country, to listen to the case presented and the answers offered. That’s the deal.

I do know that if we were sitting in Russia right now we would be pondering why an airplane crash killed someone who menaced the dictator for whom law is completely determined by his whims. I would far rather be here for ample and powerful reasons.

Each of us is a party to this system. We must folllow it as currently constructed or alter it in a public manner by majority determination, not by a few who have personal stakes. We also need remember if we do change it, there will be unintended effects. Actions create consequences.

Thank you for reading this, especially if you are a paying subscriber. Be well. FIN