10-05-2020, 10:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-05-2020, 11:35 PM by Eric the Green.)
It's true, the amendment process offers little hope for needed changes. The 13-15th could happen because the opposition was being reconstructed. Since we don't live in a world of horses, buggies, muskets, and pitchforks, and since iphones and tablets have replaced letter writing, and partial democracy has come into being instead of the aristocratic and slave-holding society run by a few male property owners that we were. "Original intent and strict construction" have little meaning except as excuses for the Court to block the needed changes passed and legislated by the people. That's what it looks like we will have now under these right-wing justices. Sclerotic is too polite a term for these despicable neer-do-wells.
The right balance is indeed needed. The Constitution says that the justices determine what the law means. It has to be modified to apply to today's world, and it has to be in the original spirit of the seeds that were planted in the words of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble. Rights for corporations is not in that spirit. Only rights for people, which make up the corporations and every other aspect of our society. The constitution provides a template from which the law can be shaped by those chosen to provide it. The Constitution is no guarantee of liberty and justice. Only the people willing to create and preserve it can bring them into being every generation.
Science, religion and law alike are not absolutes, and do not guarantee truth and knowledge. They are only useful parameters. The Constitution is a valuable reference point But there are no real rational numbers, and no scientific certainty. No one Bible has all the answers. The laws need adjusting to make them more fair, or they can be abused to serve today's version of aristocracy. We can only approximate and improvise the law as we go along, making improvements along the way, and relying on the deeper sources of truth within us and within reality itself. It would be nice if there were absolute laws, methods and standards that could be articulated and written down, but the real Absolute cannot be written or spoken, but only lived and experienced. We can only bring it into the world as best we can, and adapt our changing world to that greater reality. All words are generalities, and all rules are rules of thumb. Principles, laws, codes, methods, bibles, dictionaries are there to help us, but there are no fundamentalist dogmas that we can rely on forever.
Is there no steady anchor in this stormy sea of life? Yes there is, but to cling to it and clutch it only guarantees that you sink.
The right balance is indeed needed. The Constitution says that the justices determine what the law means. It has to be modified to apply to today's world, and it has to be in the original spirit of the seeds that were planted in the words of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble. Rights for corporations is not in that spirit. Only rights for people, which make up the corporations and every other aspect of our society. The constitution provides a template from which the law can be shaped by those chosen to provide it. The Constitution is no guarantee of liberty and justice. Only the people willing to create and preserve it can bring them into being every generation.
Science, religion and law alike are not absolutes, and do not guarantee truth and knowledge. They are only useful parameters. The Constitution is a valuable reference point But there are no real rational numbers, and no scientific certainty. No one Bible has all the answers. The laws need adjusting to make them more fair, or they can be abused to serve today's version of aristocracy. We can only approximate and improvise the law as we go along, making improvements along the way, and relying on the deeper sources of truth within us and within reality itself. It would be nice if there were absolute laws, methods and standards that could be articulated and written down, but the real Absolute cannot be written or spoken, but only lived and experienced. We can only bring it into the world as best we can, and adapt our changing world to that greater reality. All words are generalities, and all rules are rules of thumb. Principles, laws, codes, methods, bibles, dictionaries are there to help us, but there are no fundamentalist dogmas that we can rely on forever.
Is there no steady anchor in this stormy sea of life? Yes there is, but to cling to it and clutch it only guarantees that you sink.