CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS
Where Is George Washington When We Need Him?
by
M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
One of the speakers at the Republican National Convention said that what makes America exceptional is Equality, Freedom, and Opportunity. What makes America exceptional, in Miss Constitution’s view, is the nature and quality of our Rule of Law. We are a part of Western Civilization and within our Rule of Law we incorporate the common law heritage (judicial decisions) of England and then Great Britain. The philosophies that undergird those decisions go back to Greek and Roman thinking about the nature of human beings and effective governing concepts. Justice William O. Douglas is quoted in a mid-century case as saying, “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.” We are one nation, under God, indivisible no matter what some speakers at the Democratic National Convention contend.The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution are aspirational and practical and God-driven, although God is not mentioned in the Constitution itself. Both are a part of the four bundles of the Rule of Law that we agree to obey – Positive Law, Natural Law, Moral Law, and Unwritten Law. There is no system like it in the world. Part of its uniqueness is that we tolerate as a society that which can de-stabilize our governing institutions. We tolerate burning the symbol of our nation as a type of free speech. We tolerate atheism and rejection of the soul as freedom of conscience although our society needs the God-fearing and the humble to make it all work. We even tolerate those whose ideas would destroy the nation itself in the hopes that by venting those views freely, in the marketplace of ideas, the venom of them will be neutralized and our nation survive. America is exceptional as a work in aspirational progress, not as a finished product.
Our vaunted patience and tolerance as a people are being sorely tested now. We are asked to tolerate and understand those who would confront people in restaurants as they enjoy a meal and force them to choose between peace and bullying. We are asked to tolerate and understand those blocking the pathways of peaceful people on their way home and once home to endure assaults on the quiet enjoyment of their property. We are asked to tolerate and understand rioting, looting, arson, beatings with bats, brain bleeds from concrete blocks, assassinations, blinding, and stabbing. A new book was just published romanticizing looting as producing an “imaginative sense of pleasure that strikes at the heart of whiteness.” (Miss Constitution does not know how that works if the owner of a business is black.) We are being asked, in other words, to turn the other cheek, to look the other way, and to assign to ourselves the blame for the lawlessness. This is the “abused woman syndrome” applied to the nation. After the severest of beatings, the woman and the nation apologize to the abuser and thank him for the injuries. The notion behind all of this is that the only way to handle what is purported to be systemic racism is to destroy the entire nation itself. Miss Constitution rejects both the premise and the cure.
For those who think enough is enough, Miss Constitution has two solutions. One involves Unwritten Law and one involves George Washington.
Unwritten Law is the courtesies and the traditions that create a communal pleasantness and oneness so necessary to any civil society. It is the oil for a smooth-running engine. It is the law most often broken by those who are not aware of this bundle of law. The biggest criticism of the President is that he bypasses this important part of our social order and offends by his tweets. Those he offends tweet back even more offensive remarks and the game goes on. Much damage is done by adding gravel to the engine of our shared national life no matter the justification. It tends to outweigh productive public policy. One of the traditions of our Unwritten Law is not to use the public symbols meant for all for partisan political purposes. The White House setting for two nights of the Republican National Convention and a speech by the Secretary of State are outside what has been traditionally considered proper. In addition, “Black Lives Matter” painted on public streets is offensive to law-abiding citizens. Black Lives Matter is a criminal enterprise fronted by a declarative truism. Miss Constitution hopes that in this era of no boundaries of speech or behavior that each citizen will think about the emotional and psychological injury one’s words and actions have on their fellow human beings and on our nation at large. This bundle of law rises second only to Moral Law in importance in our society, in Miss Constitution’s view.
If we are to attain the noble goal of increasing equal opportunity for all people in America, Miss Constitution has said we need to start with the development of the person through healthy families. But before we can begin the process of dismantling those programs that disincentivize healthy families we have to establish no-nonsense adherence to criminal statutes that are a part of Positive Law. George Washington, the greatest example of exemplary adherence to Unwritten Law, was also very firm about stopping what he considered to be untenable behavior. His view, established in fighting the British and Six Nation Iroquois who were butchering farmers on the frontier, was maximum pain until the behavior ceased. “Our future security will be in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them.” Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization with a Marxist agenda. The severity of the chastisement should include cutting off its funding sources, stopping its terrorist tactics, arresting its leadership, functionaries, and those aiding and abetting its criminal behavior. Go behind local limited sovereign immunity and sue those who have a duty of care for persons and property in their communities. File mandamus writs to force action. After all, the opportunities that we want to open up to all who prepare themselves should not have to risk destruction under the guise of the legitimate but in reality, the criminal. If executed faithfully, the American Rule of Law can fix part of what is going on now.
Where is George Washington when we need him?
Copyright©2020 by M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
APPLES OF GOLD – Voices From the Past That Speak to Us Now by M.E. Boyd is available at
www.amazon.com
