CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS
America – Reclaim Your Manners
by
M.E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
Peggy Noonan, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, recently channeled her column through Edith Wharton, a woman of letters, and Pulitzer prize-winning author. Miss Wharton wanted to remind Americans to mind their manners or lose their culture. Miss Constitution completely agrees and wants to remind readers that manners and courtesy are a part of UNWRITTEN LAW. We have four bundles of law that we are called upon to obey and this is one of them.
Before we visit Miss Wharton’s (Noonan’s) opinions, Miss Constitution wishes to use the Kavanaugh hearings and the current impeachment discussion concerning an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court as an example. Let’s say that the allegations presented to the public in confirmation hearings are all true and that the President’s appointment of him to the Supreme Court seems unworthy. If courtesy and manners were still in practice the following would have occurred:
*the allegations would have gone to the Chair and ranking member of the Committee, confidentially; their staffs would have quietly investigated and come to a conclusion
*if both the Chair and the ranking member agree that the allegations were substantiated, they would inform Committee counsel who would inform White House counsel
*the White House counsel would discuss the matter with the President relative to a withdrawal of the nomination
All of this would have been done in confidence and with the deference to the nominee who is presumed honorable as he has been vetted in the past for his current judicial position. This is not to mention that we are talking about stale allegations of many years past. Should the nomination move forward to a public hearing, the nominee is given every benefit of the doubt and the questions asked pertain to prior judicial decisions as well as behavior on the bench known as judicial temperament. At all times courtesy and manners are extended and shown as these manners are the examples for the public. Looking at the face of Mrs. Kavanaugh while her husband was unceremoniously dismembered in the vilest language was painful for Miss Constitution to watch. The current allegations, as published by the NY Times, will remain nameless as ridiculous.
These courtesies, in public hearings and otherwise, are critical to maintaining the delicate social fabric of our society and keeping it from being ripped apart by careless, thoughtless, and malevolent persons. The Sovereign should relieve these public servants of their positions of trust for these violations of UNWRITTEN LAW. Here are some of Edith Wharton’s suggestions for modern manners in everyday life.
*walk down the street without looking at your cell phone; take out the ear-pods and connect with people; no one is interested in hearing a personal conversation in a public place
*reject the presumptuous first-name over-familiarity and disrespect; Miss Constitution is not your “honey” and certainly not your “sweetheart:
*“excuse me” is a humble statement not a battering ram
Miss Noonan is convinced that a candidate for office that supports public courtesies would win in a landslide. Miss Constitution agrees. POSITIVE LAW is enforced by fines and punishment; MORAL LAW and NATURAL LAW are enforced by your Creator; UWRITTEN LAW is enforced by “the look.” The “look” does not give permission for the impertinent and the “look” reminds you that we are all little creatures here for a very short period of time and owe each other kindness and courtesy. Not only does Miss Constitution recommend cancelling your subscriptions to the Times and Post, she hopes prosecutors will move forward against anyone who deliberately defames the hard-won reputation of another fellow creature.
Quoting Miss Noonan, “Nations run, in part, on manners; they are the lubricant that allows the great machine to hum.” Yes, indeed; without manners our great machine will come to a screeching halt.
Copyright©2019 M.E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
Miss Constitution@comcast.net
