Resistance Is Necessary

[This essay was begun before the 100th day in office of this president. On that day, one of my favorite senators, Sen. Elizabeth Warren described 100 acts of corruption by this administration. This is, I believe, a philosophical underpinning to that list, with some opinions thrown in as well. It is opinion for the mix of opinions we call democracy. As there still seems to be no correction as the new budget goes into discussion, I thought I’d put it out today.]

At a protest the other day, a woman had a sign that said, “There are too many things to list why I’m here”. I have told a few friends about the sign and – to a person – they all simply agreed. That is a problem in and of itself.

As an ordained minister, I am reminded of another time in history when there so many problems, and things were so corrupt that a clergyman listed them against the-powers-that-be. He believed in reforming The Church, but ended up creating Protestantism. The system was that corrupt. Whether or not we can reform this system remains to be seen, but I thought I would try to see if, inspired by Martin Luther, I could at least give voice to the issues that this administration has to address in order to claim any respect and, therefore, legitimate authority.

1. The fact that this list is even being considered gives me pause. The fact that many people see this idea and agree that it might be possible to come up with 95 statements means that the corruption of the administration is deep and needs to be dealt with.
2. All human beings have value. Every single one. They are, according to the Bill of Rights, “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Given that they are born with those rights in holiness, it is unholy to deprive them of those rights. For those who don’t believe in a holy Creator, it is simply wrong to write or create a law which deprives them of those rights unless there is extremely good cause and behavior which requires it.
3. A person’s simple existence is not a problem. Not now. Not ever.
4. If a person takes a life that is already here — alive and outside of the mother’s body — it is wrong to do so. If a woman believes that the baby within her is holy she can choose to see and advocate for its rights before that. This is an individual, case-by-case decision and should be respected
5. If a government takes liberty from one of those people, without exceptional reason, it is wrong.
6. If a government threatens the pursuit of happiness, it is wrong, assuming that the individual’s happiness doesn’t not impinge on someone else’s life, or liberty.
7. This President and his party have created policies that are anti- Life, anti- Liberty and anti – the Pursuit of Happiness.
8. Those spiritual descendants of Abraham — Jews, Muslims, and Christians— all believe that “there is no other God but God”. That means that no President is God. Let me express that again. There is no God but God. If people believe that a President — any President — is God, they can not say they are adherents to their religion.
9. Policies that intentionally make people poor and unable to meet their basic needs are wrong and cause long-lasting damage to the structure of society.
10. Policies which threaten people’s safety cause longstanding damage to people and society. They are to be avoided.
11. Policies which cause intentional damage to groups that are already struggling is anathema to democracy. Causing such policies to be written is wrong.
12. One of our most loved and most important Presidents spoke of “Government of the people, for the people, by the people”. Any President is not God, but is human — they must be one of “the people”. Only human beings can be government. Only human beings can vote. Only human beings can choose representatives to vote for their interests.
13. Corporations are nebulous. They don’t have one viewpoint about an issue. That is why they are so hard to pin down on responsibility. They get a benefit by their structure.
14. Individual humans don’t get that benefit. They can, and should, take responsibility for their actions.
15. Individuals can be held responsible for their actions because they generate them.
16. To that end, corporations cannot be equal to individual human beings in their decision making. They should not have the power to influence elections, especially without the responsibility for their choices.
17. Individuals, because they are human, will make mistakes.
18. If they make a mistake, there should be a way to correct that mistake.
19. If they cannot correct their mistake, they must be able to atone for it in some way.
20. Atoning is acknowledging the action, acknowledging its negative impact, and doing something to correct that negative impact.
21. Some things cannot be undone. There must, nonetheless, be some attempt to make things right.
22. The attempt to make things right for the injured must be acceptable to the injured.
23. Given the human ability to make mistakes, the injured person or group should be willing to accept the atonement of the injurer.
24. Between the injured and the injurer’s will, some form of justice can be had.
25. If the injurer takes no responsibility for their actions, healing can never take place, leaving a sort of moral wound that must be healed.
26. The universe requires us to heal that moral wound.
27. At present, there are three different, but equal branches: the executive, which makes decisions about what policies the country should make, the legislative, which figures out how to implement those policies and the judiciary, which seeks to answer if the policy is correct according to law.
28. Human beings have ideas. Human beings make plans. Human beings make things. Creating things is part of our human nature. It makes us feel like The Creator. We can be co-creators with God, but we lack the wisdom of God to always get it right.
29. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. We do not have the wisdom of The Creator. The balance of powers is designed to keep us from doing things that are too wrong, when they can’t be fixed.
30. In cases where we do things that are morally wrong, it is the one (or group) who did the morally wrong thing that is responsible for fixing the wrong.
31. If the wrong done is done using the government’s power, the other two branches are designed to hold the wrongdoer responsible for their actions — and they should until the wrong is corrected, or unless the wrongdoer has made an effort to correct the problem already.
32. Government has a responsibility to be moral in its treatment of people within the country.
33. Government has a responsibility to be moral to all people everywhere. This government can only be held responsible for its own moral standing, which it determines through policies, in its own country.
34. The Department of Health and Human Services should not harm the health of people or take away services they need.
35. The Department of State should not harm or threaten the existence of the United States or of any other sovereign government.
36. The Department of Education should not harm the education of students.
37. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigates crimes. It should not commit crimes.
38. The FBI should not investigate things it knows are not crimes.
39. The definition of “crimes” is determined by the law, not by policy.
40. The Department of Defense should not be offensive to the citizens of this country.
41. The Department of Defense should not engage in hostility unless America is threatened.
42. The Environmental Protection Agency should protect, not destroy, the environment.
43. The Department of Commerce should seek to help Commerce, not hurt it — except when commerce hurts people.
44. The National Archives and Museums shall tell the truth about history, without denials of history.
45. No one who is supposed to keep records should destroy them.
46. No one in the government should threaten the citizenry.
47. No one in the government should separate families unless they pose a threat to the family members.
48. Citizens have the responsibility to vote, and the government — any government— shall not impede the exercise of that duty.
49. As of the present moment, all people 18 years of age can and should vote.

49. It is the job of society to protect the lives of anyone under the age of voting.

50. Regarding the Second Amendment: It should be weighed against #46 above.

51. Since people’s “life” (of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) is taken away with guns, they must be only used in ways that don’t take human life.

52. That said, if revolution is needed against our own government, guns (under the second amendment) can be used. That should be our last option.

53. The government should always be such that armed revolution against it is never needed.

54. Armed revolt without the need for it is treason.

55. No one who has committed treason shall be elected in government, at any position.

56. Given the testimony, under oath, that the President has committed treason, by inciting armed revolt with no reason, he should not be in elected office ever again.

57. That is, he lost the 2020 election. There was no reason to revolt. And yet, he told his supporters to “fight like hell” on January 6, 2021. He also knew that some of the protesters were armed.

58. His lie cost more than 400 people their liberty. This leadership is therefore against the Constitution. Though he pardoned them, they still lost significant parts of the lives on trial and in jail.

57. His leadership and the lies that accompany it have also caused the deaths of a huge population due to COVID.

58. Many in his administrations have lied for him and/or to the general public.

59. Each of the Press Secretaries in his administrations have lied repeatedly.

60.Our government should be trustworthy. If it is not, it is not functional. Simply because of his, and their lies, it is neither trustworthy nor functional.

61. This does not in any way suggest that the President is solely responsible for the lies which fed the riots. Society must be honest with itself. People who tell lies about our government also denigrate the trustworthiness of the government. Individuals who knowingly tell lies about government are partially responsible for sowing distrust, which led to the events of January 6. This includes bloggers, bots, News Networks, members of Congress and others. Their actions are wrong and morally reprehensible.

62. In the course of business, this President has been impeached for using Congressionally mandated funds which were allocated for Ukraine in order to further his own agenda.

63. This President has also been impeached for the events of Jan 6, 2021.

64. Since leaving office the first time, he has disrespected the confidential secrets of the country by keeping records that weren’t his to keep. The sharing of those documents is the kind of thing that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were killed for. It is that serious.

65. That is, he committed impeachable offenses when he was in office, and illegal offenses when he was out of office. He is immoral.

66. People with a history of doing illegal things while in office should not be in a leadership position until they have proven that they can be trusted. This often requires atonement for their crimes. If a person cannot or will not prove that they are sorry for their past actions, nothing has changed.

67. If nothing changes behaviorally, nothing has changed. The person running for office has not changed, and cannot be trusted.

68. People should not vote for someone who cannot be trusted.

69. People should not be asked to vote for someone who cannot be trusted.

70. Therefore, no one should be allowed to run for office unless some form of atonement is made for illegal acts.

71. The President and all leaders in government are human and citizens, not gods before they serve. When they are out of office they return to being just human citizens.

72. Given this, there is no reason to believe that their status as human has changed during their time in office. Their responsibilities change, but their humanity, with all of its foibles, remains.

73. This makes being President an extraordinarily difficult job. People who are qualified to do such a job are few and far between.

74. Citizens should be patient with their leaders because it is such a difficult job.

75. Leaders should try to live up to the expectations of the job.

76. If there leaders who do not live up to the standards of the job and the President’s performance creates an immediate crisis that threatens the country’s foundation, there must be some way to immediately remove them.

77. This immediate removal should be able to be started by either the citizenry or members of Congress.

78. If the President is corrupt, and his party is in power, it is likely or possible that party members will shield them from removal. This has happened in the past, and there must be a corrective for it, which we haven’t seen yet, and which our Founding Fathers couldn’t imagine.

79. Congress and the President and the courts work for the people who elect them and to whom they will return after their term.

80. The government works for the people. It represents what is best for the people, as decided by them.

81. Leaders should be endowed with wisdom for the difficult job they seek.

82. There are times when it is morally right for to exercise their wisdom, though the people don’t understand it.

83. Even in those cases, the people will have final say about their decisions.

84. It is the job of leaders to help them understand their policies and show how they don’t hurt people.

85. Democracy is about expression. People express what they need and the government enacts policies to meet those needs.

86. Without expression, there can be no democracy. Therefore democracies require a free press, and free speech. Government should never work to erode either of those.

87. This also means that artists get to express themselves in whatever way they choose. The government should support the arts, as a support for democracy.

88. Free expression does not equal agreement. Just because a person or group has an opinion that is expressed does not indicate that everyone agrees with the stated opinion.

89. Free expression should not lie, however. Truth strengthens democracy and humanity. Lies hurt them both.

90. There is a difference between the expression of an opinion and the expression of a fact.

91. Facts just are , whether people believe in them or not. Opinions only exist if people believe them.

91. There should be a way for people to know which of these they are taking in.

92. Laws should respect people’s boundaries: First, the boundaries of an individual’s body. Then the boundaries of the larger community, and their decisions about what’s best for them. Finally, laws should be about living together as a nation.

93. In each of those spheres, no law should impair the rights of an individual person to make decisions about their bodies.

94. When an administration creates policies that impair those rights, it is has no legitimacy.

95. This administration creates policies daily which impair individual rights, and disrupts the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The administration needs to be reformed to correct this. Until it does, it is a scourge to democracy, instead of its support.