Ever sat in a constitutional law class taught by a sheriff? No? Didn’t think so.
But, here, in our cactus-littered state, several of said lawmen have declared the governor’s “stay-at-home” order unconstitutional and say they won’t enforce it. Scholars? Probably not.
In a small, rather independent community about 30 miles Northwest of us, three restaurants are serving meals despite said order. Confronted by local cops, one of the owners - proud of her “Trump 2020" shirt - said she’d keep serving because she, too, believed efforts to close her joint were “unconstitutional.”
Amazing how many regular folks have read - and understand - our Constitution. Just amazing. I’ve been waiting for one of what passes for reporters these days to just ask “Which part of the constitution do you find fault with? Which section?” Alas, it hasn’t happened.
Lots of other businesses are ignoring our Guv. In fact, it’s pretty close to “normal” around here. Seems those in charge of enforcement are part of the problem, too.
By now, we’re all familiar with those armed idiots who charged into the Michigan Statehouse. Got right up in the faces of the masked state troopers who held the line. Got right in their faces.
A Facebook friend calls such armed nutcases “ammosexuals.” I think he’s got it right. AK-47's and large handguns seem to loosen the same endorphins or whatever is felt during an amorous adventure. I can see them, sitting around the bars they so badly want reopened, saying “Mine’s bigger than yours.”
People from coast to coast are out frolicking about as if the disease that’s killed more than 80,000 is gone and “happy days are here again.” When an officer in Texas tried to get a crowd to “socially distance,” they pushed him into a lake.
The scary thing here is a distinct minority has forced a spineless set of politicians to put every damned one of us in a much larger majority at risk of dying! Since when does some “ammosexual’s” right to belly up to his favorite bar become more important than security of the rest of us?
History scholars tell us when the social pendulum swings too far in one direction, it eventually swings too far in the opposite direction. That being said, when our current pendulum begins to move back towards the center, where will the center be and what will that look like? Things are not going to return to “normal,” whatever your definition of that word may be.
Case in point: United Airlines. UA received several billion dollars in our last Coronavirus “relief” bill with the stipulation it keep all employees on-board for six months. With that being agreed to, UA has notified several thousand employees - 30-per cent of the workforce - they’ll be terminated in October and UA will, henceforth, operate on a much smaller basis as it sells off a major portion of its aircraft.
UA makes permanent cuts and General Electric, which makes jet engines, does the same because UA and other airlines won’t be buying new planes. So, suppliers of parts to GE around the world are laying off thousands more. And Boeing. And Airbus in Europe. And their suppliers.
That’s just one example among many, many more. There will be no return to “normal” when the virus goes away. We’re entering a period of profound change - in nearly everything.
Education: the way teachers teach and the way kids learn. The current period of “distance learning” via the I-Net is living proof. It’s also proof a large portion of kids don’t have I-Net access. That’s got to change. And it will. So, methods of instruction will have to adapt.
Homelessness and people without even basic health care. Those things will change. They must! Because providers - society as we know it - can’t survive the economic costs of millions of people overwhelming our systems of health care.
As we change in protecting our personal lives brought on by COVID-19, it’s foolish to believe all the other amenities of life won’t have to undergo major overhauls. The way we buy cars. The life-altering way we use the I-Net for shopping, medical care, entertainment, personal contact, banking, social activities. And more and more. And more.
But, as all this whirls about us, what about the “ammosexuals,” the small minorities to which politicians genuflect? The “base.” How long will we allow the malcontents, the few loud voices, the dangerously uninformed and the deniers of facts to intimidate the much larger majority?
Someone - or hundreds of someones - who shove AR-15's in the faces of law enforcement can’t be allowed to do such things with impunity. Politicians, who react in fear of these cretins, can’t be allowed to remain in positions of authority when that authority bows to civil disobedience. We, in the majority, must end that.
We’re facing a much different world - a much different living environment - when this worldwide pandemic is over. A year or two or three or four from now. However long it takes for this incessant, life-threatening virus to be eradicated.
How far will the pendulum swing in the opposite direction? How far will the majority let it go before it silences the voices of discontent? Of dissent. Of ignorance.
How far?