By Edwin Cooney
At least twice a month as a member of the Syracuse Host Lions Club, I pledge allegiance to the flag of “The United States of America and to the republic for which it stands…” Sadly and most uncomfortably, we're passing through a political, social, and spiritual nightmare. This nightmare is about unity versus disunity, indivisibility versus divisibility and, saddest of all, justice versus injustice.
Back in 1787, the Continental Congress sanctioned a constitutional convention in Philadelphia because the 13 (supposedly) “United States of America” clearly had never been and weren't united. Individual states had promised to contribute to the revolutionary war effort against England but some failed to do so. (Note: During the Civil War, Confederate President Jefferson Davis quarreled with the individual states that refused to provide sufficient manpower to the Confederate Army. Under confederations, cooperation even in time of war is voluntary!)
Once our independence was declared by the 1783 Treaty of Paris, it became increasingly evident that there was little unity among the thirteen "united" states. States began arguing with each other over their separate borders, began taxing one another's products and, worst of all, seemed about to make separate alliances with European nations. States, jealous of their social, political, economic and territorial prerogatives, were only secondarily concerned with individual human rights.
Today, primarily fearful of what a majority, especially an organized majority, of citizens might do to preserve their collective rights, many states are seeking the right in federal elections to control electors in the electoral college to suit the objectives of those already elected to statewide government. Fearful that those people who were once social and ethnic minorities will soon be legitimate majorities, too many state governments insist on regulating the electoral process. It's called "replacement theory.”
The fact of the matter is that control of government is every political party's objective. (Note: don't let conservatives tell you that they dislike government. They love government as long as they can control it and can set its agenda!)
Between 1789 and 1933, local, state and federal governments were largely controlled by a combination of economic and social forces including banks, corporations, religious institutions, police and spiritual traditions. Then came the Great Depression which literally paralyzed the social and economic factors of our society and threatened the very capacity of the country to function on behalf of "we, the people." The solution to this national paralysis was an active federal government controlled by a well-informed people.
Then, beginning in 1969, as I see it, conservatism began making its comeback.
I fear that for the second time in our history, we may be on the brink of a civil war the nature of which is far beyond and even more dangerous than anything that can take place on a battlefield. FDR's "economic royalists” appear about to return as an all-encompassing oligarchy whose bottom line is profit.
No country can successfully function without rich and influential leaders, but healthy leadership nurtures both the poor and the rich, the ill and the healthy, the uneducated and educated and, above all, ensures the personal safety of us all.
Since 1789, freedom for all law-abiding people has been what America is all about. I can't find anything in the agenda of those who are presently being predicted to be our congressional leaders beginning in 2023 that would protect the freedom of most people. Can you?
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.”
No document, including our Constitution, is perfect and beyond readjustment or amendment. It is too early in this crisis to know exactly what needs to be adjusted in our most fundamental legal document, but It appears to me that we are headed to that place we once were before everyone's well-being really and truly mattered!
If that doesn't scare you, you've got no nerves whatever!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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