A Consequential Fortnight

We've had some very consequential times in our country lately and I really haven't been able to integrate them with my perception of our society. Some of it I felt was inevitable so the integration had already been done in my mind but the effect on society as a whole still is not evident.

The Supreme Court made a couple of decisions that will be monumental but not in the ways that people think. The emotions on these issues are what is foremost on people's minds but it is the economic effects that will have the longest duration.

The court decided in a 6-3 decision that the subsidies that the Affordable Care Act makes available to people from states that did not set up their own exchanges were legal according to statute means that the ACA will continue to be available to the nation's citizens and that health care can be construed as a right subject to certain conditions. A 6-3 decision is more meaningful than a 5-4 because it means that there was some consensus over and above what was absolutely necessary. It means that the risk of the decision being overturned are minimal. I think the justices understood that Congress meant the subsidies to work in conjunction with the state exchanges but when the Supreme Court disallowed the mandate to set up state exchanges it removed the main enforcement tool to enforce the mandate. This left the subsidies sort of hanging. It could be that the ACA opponents saw this as a two pronged battle to erase the ACA but their ploy was made ineffective by the court ruling. One is never really sure of what the justices are thinking but it could have been that the ACA is firmly entrenched and there would be a very bad time if it were yanked out from under the American people. Justice Scalia, who is very legalistic as to wording, just couldn't stand it and made some really snide remarks.

But then in a 5-4 ruling the Court decided that denying marriage to same sex couples was a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14^th Amendment. This has set off a great brouhaha that goes against the grain of some who hold the religious position that it is counter to scripture. I think that legally this was a decision that was inevitable but came a bit sooner than I expected. Now it is the law and we will go through the lawsuits to decide exactly who has to perform these rites. I don't think there is any danger of religious entities being forced to comply although civil officers may be required to do so. There could be an exception for personal religiously held belief and this is probably where the lawsuits will arise. There are many who are convinced that this act alone will tip the scales and deny the protection of God from our nation. My thinking is that we passed that point a long time ago and I don't think this will endanger our standing in the Divine Personal Protection subsidy. It will, however, grant legal status for purposes of inheritance and other fiscal matters.

But prior to these governmental rulings there were the murders in Charleston. These didn't involve a police shooting so that element of disagreement was removed and all that was left was tragedy. No denying it. But, in a much more forthright way, the President along with many other influential people has held our respective noses to the grindstone and, once again, questioned the availability of firearms and the racist impulses that seem to be so deeply ingrained in our society. First the guns. Many of my friends disagree with me on this one and that is okay. I own four guns none of which are loaded. I don't hunt although they are hunting weapons. Why do I have them? Because I want to.

Now, I'm not sure that is reason enough but there it is. And that is why, I believe, that most other people want them. They may go on about personal protection but, while that may be true in some cases, I just don't buy that. I think it is much more dangerous to have unknown people packing heat given the irrationality of human response. I have a plan. It is not a new plan and I didn't think it up but it has merit. Let's require that gun owners purchase liability insurance for weapons. Insurance companies are very good at assessing risk and should be able to tell the difference in risk between a 30/30 and a Glock or AR15. We did this with automobiles so that those who, through no fault of their own, suffered insult or injury as a result of improper or irrational use of the automobiles would have some recourse to recover compensation for their having been assaulted. The same should work for weapons. No, it won't immediately remove all guns from the hands of criminals but over time it will reduce the availability of those most murderous weapons. Secondly, the symbols of racism. While as a society we need to be aware of those symbols that reinforce negative stereotypes we need to be aware that those symbols are not the real problem. The real problem is us. It is absolutely imperative that we have leaders, visible examples, who will not flinch in the face of calling out racism. It should be the goal of the nation to reach a more fair and equitable society. In the past couple of years we have seen obvious racial discord result in death and injury and this after some proposed that we had entered a post-racial society having elected an African-American President. (Do you ever wonder why we refer to him as African-American when his Mother was from Kansas and was white)? That in itself points to the old rule that even a drop of African-American blood tainted you enough to justify discrimination. We should return to those pieces of legislation that were enacted to make it difficult and illegal to discriminate and resolve, as a nation, to stamp out what the President called “Our Original Sin.” Governmental entities should not give places of honor to those symbols of hatred but they may have a place for exhibition since they are undeniably a part of our history. One should be able to display most symbols as a personal liberty but that is protected speech. We should not shy from decrying it.

My Take on these issues is this. These are very consequential things and a window of opportunity has been opened for us to take action that will make a difference. If we do not take that opportunity we will see these things again because hatred and evil always surface when we least expect it. More importantly, we will miss a chance to make our nation a more perfect union.