The constitution that hundreds of thousands have died upholding. We have forsaken the pillars of our nation to turn one woman suffering the indignity of brain death into a disgusting political display.
The courts have spoken. Congress doesn't get to call a "do over." The next time you hear Republican congressmen talking about Judicial Activism, call them out on their hypocrisy.
Many have died to maintain what we so easily discarded last night. The death of Terri Schaivo will not be any less tragic when it inevitably happens. Why are we so willing to upturn the foundation of our government?
There are some who say that soldiers who have died fighting for our Constitution made a conscious choice that Terri doesn't get to make. I say to you that many have died in far away lands after being drafted into a war they did not choose to fight, wish to fight, or even understand.
When Tom DeLay remains silent on other cases of life being ended by the removal of life sustaining medical care for sheer reasons of profit in his own state. When this president is the one who signed into law the Futility of Care act in the state of Texas that allows it to happen. I am ashamed of the men who lead our nation.
I am ashamed that we have forsaken law and process for political manipulation.
What does it say to those we are trying to democratize? What does it say to those in Iraq whose leaders have historically allowed their courts no autonomy? We come and say, we bring you another way. We bring to you democracy. We bring you freedom of expression and due process. We bring you fair justice by a system of courts that is free from manipulation by power mad leaders. We bring you faith in government.
What does it say to them that we manipulate the scale of justice when it is not tilted to the result we want?
What would the founding fathers say after fighting a war to separate themselves from a country that was arbitrarily ruling from across a sea, and did not respect the independence of courts?
The spirits of the great men who founded this country are most assuredly weeping.
As should we all.
-The Oklahoma Hippy
Federalist 78:
ReplyDelete"It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power1; that it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself against their attacks. It equally proves, that though individual oppression may now and then proceed from the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter; "
Federalist 78:
ReplyDelete"It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power1; that it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself against their attacks. It equally proves, that though individual oppression may now and then proceed from the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter; "