Where is it? That feeling that the reason it's great to be a citizen of the United States of America is we value all human beings and the inalienable rights they possess: to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? Where is the pride we had in our ability to look beyond our fears of the unknown and to gladly recognize in all mankind the right to be innocent until proven guilty? To be free of State intrusion into our homes? To speak out our thoughts and opinions as far as we can reach? To be treated with respect and fairness? To be given the benefit of the doubt? Where is our willingness, even eagerness, to stand up for these inherent rights in all others, even those we despise? Where is our conviction that it is better that ten guilty men go free rather than one innocent man sent to jail? Have these things disappeared? Has this Great Experiment failed? Has the Government Of the People, By the People, and For the People truly perished from the earth? Have we been so harmed that we no longer desire these things? Have we forgotten? Or did these lofty ideals ever truly exist in the general populous? Were they simply a bunch of fancy words crafted by Founders and Fathers that did not reflect the popular opinions of that time either?
"Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing.... They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow." (The Two Towers: J.R.R. Tolkien) I hope this is not the fate of the true American dream as well...
4 comments:
Sigh. Helm Hammerhand would be turning over in his grave.... (Theoden, too.) I have always loved that quote, though.
I imagine we lose such things because we are afraid of keeping history a part of us. We want things new, innovative, and it takes our memory away from the reasons things are intended to be as they are intended to be. It's sad, really.
It is truly sad. And I deeply hope we may remember soon.
I am not ready to despair, myself. I'm thinking of the job you hold. Every state in the union pays Public Defenders to speak for the voiceless and to defend the defenseless. We have freedoms unheard of in some other countries. Organizations as diverse as Right to Life and NARAL, Greenpeace and the NRA, simultaneously exist. I don't need to look over my shoulder as I go to church for fear a "friend" will turn me in to police. I can email widely, chose among countless news outlets, pick from a diverse array of library books, and give money to causes I support--all without fear. Typical citizens do not endure state intrusion into their homes. I will admit, respect and courtesy may be fading, but that is a cultural, not a governmental problem. The undergirdings of old-fashioned truth and justice persist--just listen to the current political rhetoric. Candidates may not be as good as they say they are, but they know that the American public still values compassion, liberty, and justice. We need to be watchful, yes, but I think we're far from hopeless.
I don't really think it's a lost cause, either. I think that people really do think that they believe these things. But they seem to believe them in the abstract. When confronted with a real-live person whom they are supposed to believe is innocent, most don't actually think he is. I regularly ask prospective jurors in Voir Dire (before the trial starts) whether they believe a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. All raise their hands. I then ask whether they they would vote to convict my client if a vote were held at this moment, before any evidence has been presented, and all they know about the case is my client's name, what he looks like, and the charges. I always have at least one person say that they would, and I once had as many as 40 people of the sixty say they would convict with no evidence whatsoever. I have a judge who regularly asks me why my client is having a trial, and doesn't just plead guilty. He knows nothing about the case at that point either. I think you're right that "typical citizens" do not endure intrusion into their homes, and such. They also don't tend to be arrested, either rightly or wrongly. But the "typical citizen" also doesn't seem to see someone who is arrested as a person, the same as they are. They don't seem to understand (or want to) how someone could be arrested for something they did not do.
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