By Chic Hollis – Philosophical Musings
But thanks to clever legal professionals and their unique interpretations of our living Constitution, social progress is made in our polarized society on occasion. What other profession is as egotistical as those admitted to the bar that run for political office, sit on hard benches in black flowing robes conducting sleep-inducing trials, and write unintelligible contracts that cover product warranties that no one but another lawyer reads?
Do youngsters still repeat the nursery rhyme:
“Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you know lies,
But if you get hit by a bag of sh*t,
Be sure to close your eyes!”
That bit of common sense is the fundamental idea that resists the latest challenge to the military’s “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy of identifying homosexuals serving among the rank and file. The WWII policy of separating those men who are considered different from those men who are considered “average” recruits has been overlooked. In other wars, patriotic men descended from African slaves served in corps of similar brave men. In WWII, Americans of Japanese descent served honorably with others of similar backgrounds. Today, women and men serving in the military are still not allowed to bunk together except in foxholes when under fire.
So why not integrate into the military establishment platoons of patriotic gays who want to risk their lives in Afghanistan or in other such imperialistic military ventures? Why should gays be exempt from serving on active duty? The “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy is an insult to honest adult Americans that know the common act of lying covers both the omission of truth and the spreading of falsehoods. Such is the disrespect of Congress and our War Machine for intelligent Americans of any age!
The more obtuse legal controversy today is over the marriage of homosexuals who are “in love.” Using legal jargon and false arguments that only lawyers could concoct, a small minority of our society wants new rights acknowledged that are not included in our historic Constitution. Each man and woman in America is permitted to have a license to marry a member of the opposite sex. No argument about that right. No discrimination involved. No problem until the lawyers began to write laws that favored married couples.
Instead of simply creating a new category for those entitled to such favors which covered two humans of the same sex who live together in heavenly bliss, the lawyers have tried to take the wrong road which has upset the leaders of the religions of the world. Not a smart act, but lawyers with good intentions usually get away with anything because they write the laws that govern our failing democracy.
Most of us don’t care about who practices sodomy in privacy, nor do we shy away from those who want to brag in public about how they live and conduct themselves – as long as they don’t interfere with our own obsessive lifestyles. However, unacceptable social behavior is never easy to restrict in our polarized society, especially when haughty lawyers and prejudiced “active” judges get involved. No one should be isolated and mistreated by the law except those who have no political leverage and those who lack the money to buy the services of a famous defense lawyer. In California, court appointed defense lawyers are overworked, underpaid, and given less respect in the court room.
The policy of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” is the common practice of the top dogs in other human activities. Many humans believe that “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” CEOs don’t want to be advised of a questionable practice in their businesses. They want to be able to deny to the press all allegations of wrong-doing. Few doctors will give a patient all the facts about the medicine they prescribe. The vague, general disclaimers on the package of pills printed in very small fonts should be read. If you don’t ask, most doctors and dentists won’t tell you more than “what you need to know.”
In modern America where you can’t trust anyone, a person who fails to question in detail his or her source of information can be easily deceived. Even fact-checkers can be unreliable and biased. There is so much verbiage being circulated, how can anyone be sure that the small part of what he or she reads can be accepted as the truth? Omissions of pertinent details is a common practice of wily editors who are secretly biased.
Back to taboos. These were the first laws that our tribal leaders used to control the members of their tribes. Since written languages were not invented, savages received little information except via word of mouth. Under those circumstances the policy of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” was conceived. In our modern society, this policy has been revised to, “Go ahead and ask, and I’ll tell you only what I think you ought to know.” Members of the human race can be trustworthy. However, depending on the circumstances, some of them are very reluctant to admit and share the truth. Many of them don’t even know what the truth is, or they stubbornly refuse to recognize it.
At the dawn of human history, authority figures made up stories that could not be proven or seriously challenged by the knowable facts. Such deception was the beginning of superstition. Taboos were decreed soon after it became obvious that innocent and uneducated folks would embrace fictitious narratives promulgated by the most powerful authority figures.
New taboos are decreed every day by every level of government based on the commonly accepted false narrative that a majority of humans would be more just than a minority. That’s the foundation of the nefarious bureaucratic scheme to keep individual citizens in the dark and ambitious lawyers busy in court and well paid.
