Right versus Law

Can I walk free, yet toe the line?

photo by Pixabay

Obey the law?

Obey the law.  Do what’s right.  Most would agree with those two statements, but what about cases where they are mutually exclusive?  Those two statements mean different things in different cultures.  The law and what’s right are seen differently in different places. What happens when you have to make a choice; follow the law, or do what’s right?

If a guy punches my brother, do I have a right to punch him?  The law says no, but some people would say yes.  The law in some cultures allows that retaliatory punch, and even encourages it. The Old Testament says, and this is Biblical law, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”  Jesus countermanded that law and said “Turn the other cheek.” The Bible promoted the law, Jesus promoted what is right. (OK, I don’t think turning the other cheek is always right, but I get the idea).

How about this for a conundrum: As the slavery issue continued to fester in the early USA, the fugitive slave law of 1850 was enacted.  This ‘improved’ upon the fugitive slave act of 1793. It gave greater power to the federal government, which had never before had such power, to send federal marshals into free states to capture escaped slaves.  Further, those who aided and abetted escaped slaves (the underground railroad) were liable for prosecution.  Say, WHAT?! The federal government had never previously granted itself the power to send marshals into a sovereign state to arrest people for doing what was right. Think about that.

But the law is the law, right?  The free states willingly complied, because we must obey the law, right?  Like hell they did! Various free states, and multiple communities, actively resisted the fugitive slave law. They passed their own ‘personal liberty laws’ challenging federal authority. Under some state laws, federal marshals faced kidnapping chargers if they attempted to recover an escaped slave or arrest a citizen hiding slaves.  There were many places that the US Marshals avoided, for fear of their safety. The battle between federal and state authority continues to this day. Do not presume that the federal government is the ultimate authority.  It isn’t.

“The law is on our side.” It was on Hitler’s side, too. And Stalin, Mussolini, Castro, etc.  They had the law on their side because they WERE the law. If the only way you can make your case is to cite law, maybe you could learn a thing or two from Jesus.

Obey the law.  Do what’s right. They don’t always go together.  In fact, they are often contradictory. There are perhaps two reasons, in theory, why laws ever get made. The first is to codify moral imperatives, such as thou shalt not commit murder or other of the ten commandments.  As Jesus pointed out, sometimes those moral imperatives need reexamining.

The other reason to make law is for practical necessity.  A simple example is stop signs.  They haven’t always been there, but with the advent of the automobile, they became a necessity. Nothing moral about them, just a recognition of practical reality.

Obey the law.  Do what’s right.  When they are a match, no problem.  But what if they contradict?  Personally, I will go with what’s right. So will cops, generally.  They generally enforce the law only when it really needs enforcing.  Generally.  Not always.  Like many, I have had some experience with the ‘not always’.  But mostly, my experience is that cops aren’t looking to make anyone’s life difficult.

Here's an easy way to win bar bet: Ask someone if there is ever a constitutionally protected right for a cop to break down someone’s door in the middle of the night and drag them out, without a warrant.  If they say ‘No’, point out that, if the person’s house is on fire and the homeowner is lying unconscious on the floor, the cop is obligated to break in and pull him out.  Free beer!

Interestingly, there has been much resistance to police power, even as citizens passively accept the power of government, thinking that our ‘leaders’ must know best.  Well, why would we presume that cops don’t know best, but nameless bureaucrats and politicians do? We have seen governments develop increasing power over us. They have more and more laws.  I would suggest that they also have less and less moral basis.  Governments aren’t a ‘thing’, they are people. It is people controlling people. There should be as little of that as possible, not more and more.

As we watch the continual unfolding of the daily drama between political factions, I invite you to pay attention.  Are they exercising ‘moral authority’, or are they exercising ‘legal authority’?  The law may be on their side but that doesn’t mean they have the right.  Among other things, we now have the gang rape of the first amendment, otherwise known as ‘hate speech’ laws. Funny how that works.  If you agree with the politicians in power, you are free to denounce any of the opposition.  Prosecutors are free to prosecute the opposition.  But if you speak against the power elite, you are subject to arrest and prosecution for hate speech.

Oh, but we can’t allow people to foment rioting and violence, right?  Guess what, we’ve had laws against that for many decades. Yes, in a free society, we are free to hate.  We are not free to hurt people based on that hate (or for any other reason, for that matter.  Hate crime? A crime is a crime.) If a person speaks hatefully of blacks, is it a crime ?  If it is, then why isn’t speaking hatefully of white conservatives a hate crime?  Just watch/read any number of progressive programs.  It’s pure hate, start to finish.  But for some reason, that hate is not only permissible, it’s desirable. It’s desirable to blame all white people today for the actions of a few white people in the past.  It’s desirable to claim that ALL whites have a built-in bigotry against minorities. That’s pure, unadulterated bigotry.  

I’ve lived a long time.  I’ve seen a lot.  I’ve seen the push and pull of the two political parties, doing some good, and a lot of harm.  I’ve watched them cement power around themselves, freezing out the interests of anyone who isn’t a party loyalist.  And all of it is legal, because the parties make the laws, just like Hitler, Stalin and Mao did..

But I have never seen the first amendment gang raped.  And I had never thought that the federal government could make itself into a banana republic, largely unresisted, in just a few short years.

There is the law.  There is what’s right.  Choose VERY carefully…

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