I grew up, and live in Poland, a country which in my school and formative years, belonged involuntarily to the Soviet bloc. America has always been, for me and my peers, the epitome of the better part of the world, superior in science and technology, but also in freedom, liberty and democracy.
With a pang of pain in my heart, as if I learned that a loved one is sick, I must say aloud that the looked-up-to nation seems to be no longer able to read its own Constitution with understanding.
Compared to American lawyers, I am similar to this child in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” who does not understand all the people’s praises, but says what he sees: the emperor has no clothes at all!
I liked the decisive and effective actions which Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, took after the mass shooting in 2019. Just one week after the tragic deaths, a national ban on semi-automatic weapons was in effect.
Nobody, whose innate moral compass has not been distorted by the magnetic force of NRA lobbyists’ money, can infer from the Second Amendment that any citizen, at any time can just enter a shop and buy a military-grade assault weapon.
The indispensable right of every child, and of every parent, to trust a school to be a safe place, is by infinite orders of magnitude stronger than anybody’s “right to bear arms.”
Convince me that the opposite is true.
The indispensable right of every child, and of every parent, to trust a school to be a safe place, is by infinite orders of magnitude stronger than anybody’s “right to bear arms.”
People vote for presidential candidates depending on their political views, but at least, used to demand that a candidate present a decent level of integrity. How come, that a notorious liar, a fraud, an uncouth lout, with whom many would not sit at a diner table, and finally, an insurrectionist who broke his oath to support the Constitution, still holds on to the ballots?
People get cancelled and lose their jobs for much smaller misdemeanours.
The sophistry which the Supreme Court has exercised in this case, mounts to the exact opposite of what the 3rd Section of the 14th Amendment says in plain and unambiguous words. See the article from Sean Wilenz, linked below, in “Further reading and audio”.
Lawyers around the world, using their hermetic and inscrutable language, can acquit a notorious felon, and convict an innocent person. This is why ordinary citizens should use common sense, and simple truths instilled from grandparents and parents, as guidance.
A military grade weapon is not a free-market commodity.
A person who does not meet integrity standards, does not deserve to hold the office.
My country is proud of proclaiming the second Constitution in the world (May, 3rd, 1791), mature and progressive, a contemporary remarkable feat of political long-term thinking. However pertinent, it did not prevent the loss of sovereignty four years later.
The wisdom of common sense, the beacons of truth and integrity, should bond stronger than opportunistic interpretations of the law.
America, wake up! Open your eyes! Be a leader, not only in technology.
In wisdom, too.
Further reading and audio:
Evan Osnos, Sam Fragoso, “How Do We Think About the 2024 Election”,
an episode of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso,
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2CecwR4BfbQYHIkVBnHhR2Sean Wilenz, “The Constitution Turned Upside Down”,
The New York Review of Books, March 6, 2024
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/03/06/the-constitution-turned-upside-down/Timothy Snyder, “The Strongman Fantasy”, in Thinking About…
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-strongman-fantasy
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