RBWords - Volume 25 - Number 6: June 2012
Something to Think About
My legal background asserts itself when I hear that the United States Supreme Court has just issued a new and controversial decision. Needless to say, the media only report the ones that have some controversial character, such as immigration and health care reform. My legal background also asserts itself when I listen to newscasts or read newspaper articles about the decisions. I know that it is best to go to the official website and read the opinions for myself before I form any opinion(s) of the decision. I also think it is shameful how politicians and churchmen can vilify and attack the justices for doing what the constitution asks them to do. I certainly don't agree with every decision that is handed down from them, but to attack them personally seems really “over the top” to me. It happens to be Chief Justice Roberts' turn to be attacked this time because he wrote the majority opinion which upholds the Affordable Care Act. All the “pundits” and experts had predicted that Justice Kennedy would be the “swing” vote.
Of course all of this feeds the media frenzy about the election campaign! I do not look forward to the next few months. Since both political parties espouse positions that are contrary to particular teachings of the church, I have registered as an “independent” voter. Candidates will posture about what kind of supreme court nominees they will offer, and in the process they will cripple the court system by holding up the nominations of clearly qualified jurists who don't meet certain ideological purity tests! I suspect that those who oppose what they call “Obamacare” will discover that a simplistic repeal without any viable plan to replace it is not in anyone's best interests, and some of the act is quite popular! A good question to ask is who benefits from such a repeal?
I hope I'm not alone in being so tired of the polarized political scene that I wish all media coverage and advertising about the elections in November would completely cease! They certainly convey little information of value about the candidates and disgust me with their outlandish claims. I guess they're like many merchants who pray for a good Christmas shopping season. Newspapers pray for a controversial and money fueled campaign. Advertising doesn't come for free! When the smoke clears in November, we will still have a president, a congress and a supreme court and America will go on living. At least we may get a brief break from all the hoopla! IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
“Dogma is the guardian of mystery. The doctrines are spiritually significant in ways we cannot fathom. According to St. Thomas, prophetic vision is not a matter of seeing clearly, but of seeing what is distant, hidden. The Church's vision is prophetic vision; it is always widening the view. The ordinary person does not have prophetic vision but he can accept it on faith.”
from a letter of Flannery O'Connor to Cecil Dawkins, December 23, 1959
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