For You, the Thoughtful Reader

I have been absent from here for a long time — a story for the future. I don’t know how many people will see this, much less read it. In a not-so-secret pocket of my heart, I hope at least one thoughtful reader will share it with at least one other thoughtful reader and so on and on and on . . .

Don’t we all? Dream on . . .

 — You, a fellow blogger

I never took a class specifically about Civics. No, not Honda Civics. The study of the rights and duties — the privileges and obligations —  of citizens. I’m not sure I could even define “civics” before I graduated from high school.

Since then, I’ve had many civic experiences. Like, voting — both a right and a duty. Every election is a chance for us (the citizens) to wield our personal, non-violent power to form a majority opinion about how we will be governed. That’s because our government’s authority and legitimacy require the “consent of the governed” That’s us. If we don’t consent, the government can’t last. This also depends on each of us committing to live under the Rule of Law.

The Law of the Land in our land, the USofA, is our Founders’ painstakingly-crafted Constitution, complete with the expandable Bill of Rights. The Constitution’s Prelude defines our Government’s reason for being with a list of our expectations. The Constitution’s body delineates the unique structure of our Government with its three independent branches. It also sets the Government’s boundaries within a system of checks and balances so that none of the three branches can take control of the other two. You know, so we don’t end up with an anarchy or an oligarchy or a monarch or a dictator or a tyrant.

Why would they worry about that?

 — Those optimists who are also naïve

Three reasons:

• They’d just won a long, bloody war to free themselves from a tyrannical monarch.
• They believed all citizens in a democracy are equal.
• Like every human in history before them, they understood that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

What about the self-centered jerks who think they don’t have to follow the rules? Because you know there will always be a few a**holes who behave like they’re above the law.

 — Realistic, law-abiding citizens like you

Well, the Law of the Land says we don’t take the law into our own hands to mete out justice as we might imagine it. According to the rules, we take the alleged law-breakers to court. There, a carefully selected group of citizens see and hear witnesses and evidence, listen to the arguments, and use their personal, non-violent power to decide the accused’s guilt or innocence.

I’ve had the civic experience of Jury Duty. Yeah, they call it a “duty” to serve on a jury of peers. Maybe that’s because so many of us think of jury duty as an imposition, an irritating interruption, an annoying demand we might try really hard to find a way to get out of.

Why meeeee?

— Almost all of us

On the other hand, isn’t it a privilege to sit in judgement of a peer and rise to the highest level of expectation the Rule of Law asks of us? To lend them our attention, our objectivity, and our thoughtful consideration to reach a just conclusion — yes, that’s a privilege.

On February 6, 2025, Angus King, an Independent US Senator from Maine, spoke to the US Senate about their duty. He presented a clear-eyed, informed, easy-to-understand description of the Founders’ reasons for creating the particular Constitution we have held up as the Law of the Land for almost 250 years. I have never heard it put quite this way. I feel enlightened. I hope you’ll find it as inspirational as I did.