My energy levels have been dropping recently or perhaps it’s just a matter of getting older. I can recall a comment my father in law made to me as I was climbing up a ladder to clear out some guttering above a dining room window which was causing problems. He was then about the same age I am now. “I used to be able to do that” he said with a wistful chuckle. It made me laugh then and I completely understand what he meant, now. The incident was 34 years ago and I write this with a wistful chuckle in mind.
Unfortunately there is not much to chuckle about lately, wistfully or otherwise. If my memory serves, Alistair Cooke - British/American Journalist and Commentator born in Salford, Lancashire and graduate from Jesus College Cambridge, as well as both Yale and Harvard, great fan and supporter of the United States, the Constitution and the United States Supreme Court – sent a letter from America to the BBC in the UK, concerning the Supreme Court. It can be heard at the following link:
In this letter he praises the Court and its function as well as illustrating his argument for its continued existence and necessity. He states:
“It is the final protector of the citizen’s individual right against any encroachment by other individuals, by companies, by state laws, by federal laws, by the congress, the armed forces… by the president himself. (Its judgments are made) Referring always to the holy writ of the 1780’s (the Constitution) and giving it a modern interpretation according, as Justice Holmes said, to the moral climate of the time.”
What Mr Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said in relation to the Constitution:
“The provisions of the Constitution are not mathematical formulas having their essence in their form: they are organic, living institutions transplanted from English soil. Their significance is vital, not formal; it is to be gathered not simply by taking the words and a dictionary, but by considering their origin and the line of their growth.”
In the last lines of the letter, Mr Cooke invites the listener to tune in next week when he will be discussing the Supreme Court’s decision on a case involving a 24 year old woman from Brooklyn, Cora McRae, who on the 1st October 1976 went into a clinic and asked for an abortion. No, this is not Roe v – Wade, but a reference to the Hyde Amendment to the Medicare Act which provided funds for medical services. The Amendment restricted the use of federal funds for abortion. You can find the case at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_v._McRae
In his Television Series, America (1972-73), which ran for 13 episodes, Mr Cooke gives his account of the development of the United States, and in one of the episodes, he praises the formation of, and the effects of, the Supreme Court on the Nation as well as the surprising effect on its Justices. In the light of current developments in the United States, I believe that Mr Cooke is currently turning over in his grave or vaporising his ashes.
The Supreme Court has not always been brilliant, as some of its early rulings on race can testify, but it has usually come round to ‘the moral climate of the time’. This has been its saving grace. The tragedy now, is that it is operating in a climate without morals. It does not know where it sits. It has lost its way.
Where is the morality that claims states must be allowed to impose restrictions on an individual’s right to make crucial decisions about their personal physical and mental health, pandering to those who claim “a right to life” principle for unborn genetic material, whilst at the same time allowing the free use and possession of firearms which are responsible for the killing of thousands if not millions of very much alive citizens.
The right to life and the right to kill are indeed a problem. The United States apparently has no idea where to begin dealing with the complexities arising and pursues the dual strategy of stubborn adherence to some vague outmoded religious texts and a vague outmoded phrase contained in an 18th Century document which are equally miles away from considering their origins and lines of growth. There is no longer any moral compass to indicate the path to take.
The divisions in that society have shattered any sense of direction towards what used to be considered a common goal. There are certain basic principles that float in the air, anti-racism, anti-religious bigotry, notions of freedom of speech, liberty of the citizen, but all they do is float in the air. The gatherings of young people under a white supremacist’s emblem are distressing. The continued antisemitism and racism, the blanket hostility towards any socially democratic position is rife across a vast number of old and terrifyingly young Americans. How did these divisions arise? How have so many young people become so alienated as to gather together high powered weaponry to slaughter anyone in “their way”? What ‘way’ are they following? Why are these divisions so intense? Where has any sense of morality or civility gone?
Is it any wonder that with the election of a supreme amoral psychotic narcissist, fortune would have it, to allow him to create a Supreme Court which has lost all sense of proportion and morality, which I suppose is the current climate of the time? No morality or sense of civility in sight. Whereas at one time, according to Mr Cooke’s observance of the Supreme Court of the United Sates, the court itself, for the most part, encouraged considered, intelligent, civil, and respectful thought to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States and the individual citizens who live under that protection. Thus members from any political persuasion could come together as fellow Justices, not always agreeing, but for the most part protecting the citizen’s individual right against any encroachment by other individuals, by companies, by state laws, by federal laws, by the congress, the armed forces… by the president himself. Referring always to the Constitution and giving it a modern interpretation according to the moral climate of the time. It no longer exists. There is no moral climate.
That is a situation not too far distant from what is occurring in the United Kingdom. The lack of morality and the amoral conduct of the British Prime Minister and his colleagues is painfully apparent for the world to see, what with a totally illogical, inhumane and insane immigration policy concocted out of some fantastical brain, a prime minister sans character, sans principle, sans ethics, sans truth, sans everything one might want in a government leader. A thoroughly divisive individual who refuses to see that he has no integrity or real support to carry on. He fashioned a weak and pliable cabinet who cling to his coattails for dear life. Not one seems willing to say, “Boris, you’ve had it. Step aside and let us get on with the job. We no longer need you. Thank you and good bye. We’ll take it from here”.
There are outside voices galore, but none in a position to make him go. What is wrong with the conservative party? Have they no eyes to see, ears to hear, brains to think, voices to speak? By now there should be a clamour, a noise so loud he can hear it from abroad. Yet there is nothing. The divisions are too deep and any sense of morality seems to have disappeared. That there are still Members of Parliament willing to continue in place with Boris Johnson as leader, and that there are still, despite every piece of visible and auditory evidence condemning him, people willing to vote for him and his party, is as baffling as it gets. No, there can be no morality with that sort of thinking in place.
Since the advent of Brexit, Trump and covid the world I thought I knew has vanished. I still am able to meet with friends who sometimes agree with my thinking. That is a saving grace, to be able to meet up with, eat with and drink with one’s friends, among whom are even relatives, is a great joy and makes the whole business of living somewhat worthwhile, and Celia of course. Not everyone agrees on everything, naturally, but on the whole I think we are a civilised bunch. Some are slowly going downhill, but that’s just getting old, their younger fry are taking up the slack, so to speak. Most of the younger people I know are pretty terrific. I have considered their origin and the line of their growth. Will they be able to hold out and reverse what is happening around us? I do not know, but their mere existence is some way to that end. Hosanna in the highest!!
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