justice

I admit it: I’m frustrated, worried, and SO tired of power-hungry hypocrites. As I write this, the former president appears on the verge of indictment and is calling for protests, while his allies in Congress announce investigations into all the institutions that are trying to hold people accountable for their actions. Elected officials who have sworn oaths to support and defend the Constitution and uphold the laws of the land are working actively to undermine the very institutions and legal system they supposedly venerate and support.

I have advanced degrees in political science. I believe in a representative democracy as the best form of government, and a well-regulated private sector as the best economic system. But these things depend on people engaging in the political system constructively. Take a position, present it, run for office or if you’ve already been elected, offer it up as legislation. If there is support and you get elected, or if your proposal gets enough votes to pass, then we all accept that outcome as reflecting the majority will. If you run a business and you operate within our society, taking advantage of publicly-funded infrastructure, public safety services, public education, environmental health standards, etc., then you have an obligation to share some of the profits from your enterprise to ensure that such systems continue to serve into the future. And we, as a society, have the responsibility for ensuring that your economic activities don’t cause harm to your workers or the communities in which you operate. Our system should not, as it unfortunately does now, privatize profits while imposing costs to be born by the public.

It’s tax time, and I think we need to understand that our tax payments are an investment in a well-run public sector (some of which operates well today, and some of which is in need of significant reform). Without an effective government, we would not have measurement standards, for example. I could claim that my package weighs a pound whether or not it conformed to an official definition of a pound, and you, as a consumer, would have no way of knowing. You could not enforce a contract without a court system to hold signatories accountable. I could make a competing product using your corporate name and logo if there were no trademark protections. All of these things matter.

If we only apply the laws that we like, and if we spew lies and make threats against the legal system when they hold people accountable who we want to protect, we damage our whole society. We know there are imperfections everywhere. We know that systemic bias exists. It has been well documented. We need better education and systemic reforms that are based in reality – not imaginary problems created by space lasers or dead people. Everyone’s rights deserve to be equally protected. There is much work that is needed. Violence is not the answer.

Engaged and educated voters are essential so that people in whom we entrust power use that power for the greater good, and not just to get more for themselves. And if we want better educated voters, we need to have the right people on school boards and in legislatures that control curricula. It’s horrifying to read about censorship and book banning in public education. I hope the backlash from the extreme positions taken in some states will empower those who believe that education is about critical thinking and honest representation.

OK – this is too long already. I haven’t posted anything for a while, so I had lots to write about. I hope soon I can write about good news and restorative justice.