Live Together or Perish: The Choice Is Ours

By Rev. Stephen Tillett PASTOR, ASBURY BROADNECK UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

By Dr. John E. Warren PUBLISHER, THE SAN DIEGO VOICE & VIEWPOINT

In the midst of the discussion of the second indictment of former President Donald Trump, there is an issue greater than, if not equal to, the former President’s alleged crimes.

That issue is the embarrassing spectacle of those elected members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate who have taken an oath to “uphold and defend” the Constitution of the United States, which includes its laws, institutions and process of governance. That oath respects the separation of powers as established in Articles I, II and III of the Constitution. It requires that the business of the nation be done in the prescribed manner of its laws, which gives legislative powers to the Congress, Judicial powers to the Courts and Executive powers to the President as prescribed under Article II. This means that when Republican members of Congress take aim and condemn the Department of Justice, the same DOJ operating under its delegated authority within the prescribed conduct of the Judicial system, their conduct denies the validity of the very Constitution such members swore to “protect and defend”. It is one thing for die hard Trump supporters to speak as if they are operating in support of the Constitution, and another to, at the same time, say they will not read the indictment and refuse to acknowledge the

It is an embarrassment to have the Speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the U.S. Senate openly attack the process and indictments brought against Donald Trump. They refuse to even read the document in which Trump indicted himself through his words, and actions while he simultaneously refuses to acknowledge the threats to national security detailed in his illegal holding and refusal to release Secret and Classified documents.

If Donald Trump were to be treated like anyone else in a similar situation, the Court would probably order a psychiatric evaluation to consider his fitness to stand trial. His actions and statements are against his personal interest. What does that say for the elected officials and the candidates for the Office of the Presidency on the extreme right who seek to use the Republican Party to support Trump, in spite of the laws he has violated and for which he will be tried, and should be jailed?

The solution to this crisis is for the rest of us to not lose faith in our system of government. To use our votes and even the Recall Process to remove from Office those extremists who would violate and throw out our laws and system of democratic governance to support what they want: the replacement of democracy with an authoritarian form of government under Donald Trump. Their end goal is a physical war of violence against our democratic governmental institutions and those of us who support those institutions.

We must not join the embarrassment of those elected officials who are drinking the Trump Kool-Aid. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Freedom”. Let's watch and Vote!

Letter to the Editor

Political Gamesmanship

Dear Dr. Warren,

How can so many Black people allow a BOS Chairwoman to pretend to support a flag ceremony and the very sacrifice of our ancestors? Chairwoman Nora Vargas hasn’t hired one Black staff person to share the lived experience of our people as it pertains to County services. As a Veteran, I am happy to see so many Black people employed by the County but how many can’t get a job? How are Black employees’ rate of promotion being monitored? This County has a regional task force on homelessness and recently a report showed how the mistreatment of Black Unsheltered is being ignored. The County Board of Supervisors have the Leon Williams Human Relations Commission and I can only assume that they haven’t asked the Chairwoman either on how she can pretend to invite everyone to the table to discuss issues and solutions but can’t hire a Black staffer? When will Black people stand together and demand change and accountability?

Mr. Rodney Hart, Retired Veteran

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One of the advantages of living in an open society like the United States is that it has become home to people from all over the world. Their experiences and histories become a part of us. Right now, many of those people are sounding the alarm and warning us that things they see happening here happened in the countries of their birth and had very dangerous outcomes. They see the same rise of authoritarianism, the decimation of governing and societal norms and a reliance on violence to dissuade or silence others. These were the ingredients that led to the weakening or destruction of the governments and societies in the lands from whence they have come.

It is naïveté or arrogance to assume that the outcomes that occurred elsewhere in the world cannot afflict us here as well. We have reached an inflection point. We have to decide whether our government and society only works for us if we get our way, or if we are committed enough to this American experiment to stick with it even when our candidates don’t win, or our bills don’t pass, or our nominees don’t receive appointments. We can either have it our way or continue to benefit from and enjoy the stability and protections of our constitutional republic. We cannot have both. The choice is ours.

When being sworn into the US Air Force years ago, I took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…and bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” Those who serve us in elected office have taken a similar oath. However, unless we live out that oath, together, based on devotion to the Constitution and the rule of law, we will decline and dissipate like every other former great power.

Unless we put country before party and before self-interest, our days as the “United” States are numbered. In 1780, Founding Father and the second president of the U.S., John Adams, shared his concern about “parties.” He wrote, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.” How prophetic those words have become.

For any marriage to survive the tests of time, the couple must choose to stay together no matter what and understand that compromise will be necessary. The moment we believe that our government is working only if we get our way, we have surely missed the point, and dissolution comes next.

Being a citizen of this country requires us to understand that the rule of law matters, and no one is above it. Being an American requires us to “support and defend the Constitution” and free and fair elections both when our candidate wins an election and when they don’t. Sharing in the citizenry of our country should compel us to stand in opposition to any attempt to overthrow our (own) government, just because some didn’t get their way.

We can decide that maintaining what we have, imperfections and all, is worth preserving, or we can decide since “I” am not getting “my way,” I choose to burn it all down, wage war, in whatever form, against my fellow citizens, and assume that whatever comes next will be better than what we have now.

I promise you that will not be the case. Once we’ve blown this up, whatever comes next will be both unrecognizable and unsatisfactory. And since you have determined that your way is the only way, even people with whom you once agreed, when they eventually dare to have a different opinion or perspective from yours, they, too, will become “the enemy.”

You can have the United States of America, or you can have your way, you cannot have both. We will either “learn to live together” as fellow Americans “or perish together as fools.” The choice is ours.