Radical Constitutionalist

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An experiment of sorts.  Today’s blog is below- in video or written formats.  Your choice!

Yes. That’s who I am. It’s who I’ve been now for more than 5 decades.
The term wasn’t something I coined myself. It’s how I was described by others and to others.

Back when dissent was considered a dirty word. (OK. It still is.) Back when yanking the United States government to obey its constitution or where the actions of citizens to exercise their right to vote were greeted by police guns- shooting at their own citizenry, or recruiting firemen (they were all men back then)  to shower us with blowtorches of water- forcing us to the floor, so others could beat us up.

Forest City

I had grown up in a New York City suburb. A small community surrounded by the Levittown/Wantagh/Bellmore/East Meadow sprawl. Back when slightly more than 1 million people lived in Nassau County, the portion of Long Island sandwiched between Brooklyn/Queens (the New York City’s sprawl) on the West and Suffolk County (mostly farm country) on the East. And, my community was a hotbed of anti-Semitism.

My brother and I were routinely attacked. Our windows were broken. We even left that town in a hurry- because our neighbor warned us folks were planning to burn our house down (with us in it, of course).

So, it shouldn’t be surprising that I could understand the experiences being afforded Black folks in America. With both blatant and secreted animosity. Where jobs for them were harder to get. Voting one’s choice was not in the offing.

הניני

And, following the rules of my faith,  I answered Hineni. Here I am.

But, as opposed to many other young folks (ranging in age from 13 to 23) who were protesting the illegal and immoral war in VietNam, Southern governments, Northern hypocrisy, and the abandoning of our poor, I just took issue with the misguided leaders.

Declaration of Independence

 

I have always been enamored of our Declaration of Independence. A document that still stirs me to this day. And, our Constitution- for all its faults (women don’t count, slaves are allowed and are only worth a fraction of their neighbors, etc.)- is still one of the best blueprints around.

Port Huron Statement
2nd Edition of the Port Huron Statement, December 1964

So, the Port Huron Statement was my generation’s “Federalist Papers”. Elucidating where change and action were necessary.

I quote herein:

Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people—these American values we found good, principles by which we could live as men. Many of us began maturing in complacency.
As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss. First, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled most of us from silence to activism. Second, the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb, brought awareness that we ourselves, and our friends, and millions of abstract “others” we knew more directly because of our common peril, might die at any time. We might deliberately ignore, or avoid, or fail to feel all other human problems, but not these two, for these were too immediate and crushing in their impact, too challenging in the demand that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution.
While these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration “all men are created equal . . . rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo.
We witnessed, and continue to witness, other paradoxes. With nuclear energy whole cities can easily be powered, yet the dominant nation-states seem more likely to unleash destruction greater than that incurred in all wars of human history. Although our own technology is destroying old and creating new forms of social organization, men still tolerate meaningless work and idleness. While two-thirds of mankind suffers undernourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance. Although world population is expected to double in forty years, the nations still tolerate anarchy as a major principle of international conduct and uncontrolled exploitation governs the sapping of the earth’s physical resources. Although mankind desperately needs revolutionary leadership, America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated rather than “of, by, and for the people.”
Not only did tarnish appear on our image of American virtue, not only did disillusion occur when the hypocrisy of American ideals was discovered, but we began to sense that what we had originally seen as the American Golden Age was actually the decline of an era. The worldwide outbreak of revolution against colonialism and imperialism, the entrenchment of totalitarian states, the menace of war, overpopulation, international disorder, supertechnology—these trends were testing the tenacity of our own commitment to democracy and freedom and our abilities to visualize their application to a world in upheaval.

My actions- and am still pleased to admit that I convinced many others in my groups- recognized that our institutions- the courts, the Congress, our governmental structures, our schools- were not the problem per se. The misguided, those who want to control and steer these institutions for their (or their cronies’) personal gain- they are the ones to be stopped.

So, I will skip over (for now) the corrupting and destabilizing menagerie that TheDonald has been foisting upon this great nation. But, I lament the loss of honor and integrity of the Grand Old Party that surrounds him. The party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, Charles Percy, Ed Brooke, and Ralph Caso. No- they weren’t perfect (sorry, Charlie- no one is), but they believed in the American Ideal- to be that ‘shining city’ that would beckon the world.

Of course, no one really recognized then- or now- that it was the MUCH less than benevolent John Winthrop who proclaimed that this was to be the vision for  America.  This was to be his replacement for the city that owns my heart- Yerushalayim- Jerusalem. Nor should any of us consider that Winthrop was even  as benevolent as Jim Clark. (Come on- you are celebrating the fake holiday of Martin Luther King day today [instead of last Thursday, his real birthday] and you don’t know Jim Clark was the malicious sheriff attacking the peaceful marchers in Selma?)

Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma

That’s yet another institution that our government has subverted. The institution of holidays that celebrate events. When we celebrate the birthday of Lincoln (12 February) and Washington (22 February) whenever. When May 30th ceased being a Memorial Day to becoming a 3 day holiday. How can we revere institutions if we let our government subvert historical context for political convenience?

VietNam protests

I know many of you will recall that my generation disparaged the military leadership during the  VietNam (non-)war. But, most of you fail to recognize why. That war involved the US troops executing a variety of massacres. Indiscriminate bombing of villages. Subverting amoral chemistry into the immoral deluge of napalm over the countryside- but especially the people of VietNam. The lying to the American people about the status of the war (with inflated kill numbers- like that’s what counts).

[Maybe now would be a good time to be reminded that this is EXACTLY what our government’s leaders have been feeding us for almost two decades now about Iraq and Afghanistan. ]

Yes, I’ve been going on. This is probably going to be the longest blog post ever.

Because I am asking you all to consider- or reconsider- the institutions that make this country great. To work with reasonable people and remove the canard that corporations are people, too- which affords them the right to buy our government leaders. To create laws with teeth that will make it impossible to a Governor of Virginia to have his criminality dismissed because our ethics laws are a joke. Where TheDonald can’t profit from having foreign governments and corrupt corporate leaders from filling his coffers with thinly described bribes (frequenting his marquee brands). Where governors across this land (to name but 3 such unscrupulous Governors-  Justice [sic] of West Virginia, Hogan of Maryland, Scott of Florida- as opposed to JB Pritzker of Illinois and former Governors (now Senators) Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Warner of Virginia)  don’t remove themselves from their busineses, profiting further by their office-  and, like TheDonald, they  install family members to control the arcs of power in their states.

National Archives Changes History

What about TheDonald’s minions removing all mention of climate change repercussions from government databases. Or firing the folks that maintain the scientific basis of our government. And, then this past Friday (17 January 2020), when the National Archives (please read those two words again- and if you don’t know what they mean look them up) felt obliged to use Soviet-style editing to blur and blot out signs from the Women’s March, so that TheDonald would not be embarassed that the march was primarly a response to him, his boorishness, and his vast ignorance of geography and history. (i.e., he has no idea where places are in this world nor did he know why Pearl Harbor was a place to visit on 7 December.) The hue and outcry of Americans forced the National Archives to correct this mendacity but one day later.

We need to stop TheDonald  stealing money from critical military projects to repair the homes, daycare centers, and schools we provide our troops and their families. As we send these men and women overseas to fight wars, leaving their families with rats, vermin, sewage, leaking roofs. Just so TheDonald can wall us in (protecting us from the non-existent hordes; and stealing private land to suit his whim)- you know the wall he promised Mexico would build.

(While we’re at it… Where are these fake superpatriots that took such issue with my generation’s attitude towards the troops, yet are blind, dead, and dumb as TheDonald calls the military leadership losers, idiots, and babies? At least my generation labeled the troops involved in the massacres war criminals- just as we Americans labeled the Germans for their similar actions in World War II.)

Immigration Department Mission Statement

Our institutions (before TheDonald) had core mission statements that aligned with our Constitution. Law enforcement (not the protection of TheDonald personally), educating our children (not promoting religion or business interests), serving the poor (you do know SNAP is at least as much a benefit to our farmers as it is to the poor), etc. Our institutional processes provided templates to accomplish the tasks needed to keep America great. Those institutions need ethical folks (not another Rick Perry who couldn’t even recall the name of the agency he was named to head- or what functions it accomplished) with knowledge to guide their teams (yes, teams) to better American life.

Milton Friedman's Pivotal Article, NY Times
We want to trust our vital institutions. (At least until Ronald Reagan, whose basic desire was to remove all non-military functions from the US government, went about starving the agencies, hoping they’d fail their missions, and, therefore, fulfill his promise that the government is never here to help citizens.) We want to trust our businesses. (At least until Marty Friedman convinced corporations that they had no need for a social compact with their employees, their customers, and their communities.) We want to trust our professionals. (Again, until the Big Six accounting firms got so clouded by the money they were making that they lost sight of their mission, to ensure the records companies provide their stockholders were true and accurate.) We want to trust our military. (Which means they have to tell us the truth about the wars- legally declared or otherwise- we fight- or plan to fight. Regardless of the political exigencies.)

It’s these failures of ethics and integrity that are degenerating the core and the soul of America. We don’t need folks attacking the institutions- but working within them to accomplish the missions (before the subversions of TheDonald and his minions) to steer America into the future.

We are supposed to use Martin Luther King Day as a aday of service.  Please do- let’s recover our integrity and ethics- personally and within our institutions.  Starting right now.

Ok. It’s time for me to get off my soapbox.Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

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10 thoughts on “Radical Constitutionalist”

  1. Well said! Not only does TheDonald sicken me, but his minions who always put politics over the country -they are supposed to love – yet they continue to support him tirelessly.

      1. Yes it was long but interesting. I especially like the last part “working within them to accomplish missions to steer American into the future”

  2. Hey, great job, Roy! Your analysis of the current situation with the Donald as a president was so insightful. I really liked how you wove the experiences of your youth with the situation that exists today. And it was so interesting! I had never heard of the Port Huron Statement. That was a bit before my time. But what an interesting document.

    Also, I enjoyed listening to your voice. Thank you for recording your blog post. It felt more immediate, and I really appreciated your passion. Great job! You ought to do this again!
    Alice Gerard recently posted..It’s time for… contest results!!!!

  3. I traveled through Richmond, Virginia on a train today, in the predawn dark, pondering what would happen there in a few hours as the train whisked me to another part of Virginia. I hope people will take the time to read this post (or listen to it on You Tube – I did parts of both). Our America is in so much danger today. The people have been betrayed, and betrayed people tend to gravitate towards demagogues, as history teaches us. Or, they take matters into their own hands and pull institutions down, which is just as dangerous. This is our country’s 11th hour. What happens tomorrow in the Senate will be the beginning of….something. Let’s hope it is a turn back to sanity.
    Alana recently posted..Songs that Appeal #MusicMovesMe #blogboost

    1. Thankfully, the nonresident crazies who came to town did not create a fracas, Alana.
      Thank you for reading and listening, Alana.
      I doubt that the hearings in the Senate will do anything but contribute to the ongoing insanity. It’s up to us- the US Citizenry to develop the solutions and enforce their resolution.

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