We can celebrate 250 years of independence as a nation, but have we upheld and honored the Declaration of Independence’s claim “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?” Clearly, we have not! But what we can celebrate is that we have continued to do better, be better and improve our nation. Except for the last two years! We have been going backwards. (This was submitted to the Columbus Dispatch in an earlier version and not published.)
The United States Navy has murdered people in small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. (See previous blog.) Members of ICE clearly murdered two American citizens and, along with the Border Patrol, murdered others and committed other crimes. But no legal action has been taken by either the Federal or state governments. The United States military started and has continued an unconstitutional, illegal war against Iran. Neither the United States Congress nor the Supreme Court have enforced the laws of the United States or the Constitution. In addition to those, we now have a racist government, especially in Hegseth’s Defense Department.
Attacking and Punishing DEI Is Taking Us Backwards
I will not claim that DEI was a consistent successful set of programs. Apparently, there is no evidence that training was effective. I know that the diversity training I received never taught me anything useful. Although, I was, and I should not have been, surprised to learn that an African-American worker had to go to segregated movie theaters in Wheeling West Virginia in his youth. He was younger than me, but I should’ve realized that the North and South were segregated until the 1970s in spite of Brown v Board of Education and the 1960s civil rights acts. The biggest problem with DEI is the same problem that many organizations, including, as far as I’ve been able to find out, The Ohio State University. DEI programs did not use data and did not have measurable objectives. That is almost a guarantee for never knowing whether they were actually accomplishing anything or whether changes were needed.
Diversity
If you are against diversity, you are not un-American you are Anti-American! The people who first came to the colonies were all or almost all English, but they were diverse: Puritans, Catholics, Church of England, Quakers and included Dutch and Scots Irish. Later the English settlers continued to diversify into Methodists, Unitarians, Baptists, and Church of Christ. And of course, there were always the Native Americans whose land, after the Puritans and survived a couple of winners, was persistently and aggressively stolen by the English-Americans. (See This Land Is Their Land by David J Silverman)
The United States has always been diverse. People originally came almost exclusively from England, Scotland and the Scots Irish. After the potato famine, the Irish imigrated but were not considered to be “white” for least 50 years: Paddies, Micks, barbarians. Same with the Italians, about 50 years: Dagoes, Guineas, Wops. Later we had Scandinavian, German, Polish, Eastern European, and Greek not to mention Asian immigrants and the descendants of the Spanish who were already in the territories we bought or conquered.
Equity
Equity means fairness. If you are against being fair, you are again Anti-American. (You probably are not even ethical or moral .) Are you really against being fair? Do you
really think that there should be one set of laws for some people and different laws for others, that people from countries other than England or northern Europe and Native Americans should be treated differently, that America should not be a land of opportunity for all including people from Africa and Asia, that they should be segregated and discriminated against? If so, shame on you and why do you still live in this country? Why haven’t you left to live with the other bigots who hate the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?
We have come a long way but still have work to do. In the last year and half, led by the president and the six Republicans on the United States Supreme Court, we have begun to go back to those black days. The current court and its six Republican justices are making decisions that effectively cancel African-Americans votes in many former Confederate, southern, states. The Republicans on the Supreme Court are also making illegal the remedial actions that have been undertaken to help the descendants of the slaves who after 250 years of slavery lived for 100 without liberty, equality or the pursuit of happiness and without equal access to education, jobs, the ownership of property, the opportunity to own and grow their own businesses and even the opportunity to vote. Secretary Hegseth is turning our military back into a segregated misogynistic institution.
Inclusion
Inclusion is an inherent requirement for accepting diversity and providing equity. If we are not willing to include all citizens regardless of the shade of their skin, their culture or their ancestors then we are not a nation! We have never been a nation based on a common culture as the nations of Europe are. We are a nation based on a common set of values including a republican form of government, open competitive markets and fundamental political and social rights. All citizens, legal immigrants and people who have been given asylum must be treated as equals and guaranteed equal protection under the law.
The Rule of Law and the Civil Service
The Supreme Court has also been weakening the rule of law. They have given the president of United States immunity from prosecution for crimes. Immunity that only kings, emperors and dictators have had. They are also allowing the current president to violate laws passed by Congress and signed by his predecessors without referencing any language in the constitution to justify his failure to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed….” The justices justify their decisions using only their personal opinions of what it means to be an “executive.”
Until 1883 federal employees were hired under the “spoils system.” When a new president was elected, all the federal employees who were members of the losing party were fired, and members of the winning party were hired regardless of qualifications. Again, today’s Supreme Court is on a path to give the president the power to fire anyone regardless of the civil service laws. This will destroy the civil service and re-create the spoils system with all of its corruption and incompetence.
There have been killings that seem clearly to be murders committed by federal law enforcement with no consequences either from local, state or federal prosecutors. In
my opinion, as a former judge advocate in the OHARNG, there is no question that the killings of people in small boats accused of transporting drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean are murders under international law and treaties signed and ratified by the United States. Even if convicted of transporting drugs in the U.S. no one can be given the death penalty. And, the president has no authority in the Constitution or law to start wars. To my knowledge, no president has ever done this except Trump by attacking Venezuela and Iran. And there have been no consequences from his puppets in Congress for these illegal acts.
We no longer have the separation of powers established by the Constitution nor three branches of government. As noted, the Supreme Court is no longer acting as an independent branch enforcing the laws and the Constitution. District and some Appeals Courts have upheld the laws but the Supreme Court in the predominant number of cases has not. Both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans who simply do whatever the president tells them to do. It is no longer the most important branch nor a check on the others.
Thus, the rule of law dies.
Finally, Gerrymandering!
Benjamin Franklin said that the Constitution created a republican form of government, “if we can keep it.” Neither the federal nor many of the state governments are republics any longer. Gerrymandering destroys the republican, representative, form of government; it destroys democracies. It prevents people’s votes from counting when they are in a district gerrymandered for the other party. It is a pure exercise of power politics by politicians who have no integrity and no commitment to the values that were fought for in the Revolution, supposed to be protected by the Constitution , and it is increasing.
Already many states, including Ohio, do not have legislatures that represent the people. Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin and other states are no longer republics. The president has asked, and some states have complied, to increase the gerrymandering of the U.S. House so that it is no longer the House of Representatives. British interference in and elimination of the colonies’ legislatures is mentioned six times in the Declaration of Independence! Again, the six Maggie Republicans on the Supreme Court refuses to enforce the Constitution , refuse to enforce its guarantee that the states will have republican governments. (Article 4, Section 4) Can we celebrate with this wholesale destruction of government “of the people (and) by the people?”
We and all the immigrants, including our ancestors, have achieved much, but we must constantly be vigilant and active in protecting our rights and the rule of law. We must continuously work to improve and extend them! We must stop each of the Federal Government’s three branches and Republicans from continuing their current destruction of what so many worked to achieve!
