Weeks 31-33: Rule of Law

-

This week the president rescinded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). This program, started by President Obama, allows children that were brought to the United States without proper documentation to stay and work and/or go to school. There are currently about 800,000 people registered for DACA.
These undocumented immigrants were already in our country and DACA gave them an opportunity to come out of the margins of society and participate more fully. This is why they have been nicknamed the Dreamers. DACA gave them the audacity to strive for the American Dream.     

There is not a lot of argument that the DACA recipients are good, hard working people. Everyone seems to agree on that because, well… they are.

 

In his address, Jeff Sessions said:

This does not mean they are bad people or that our nation disrespects or demeans them in any way.

The argument instead is an argument about the “rule of law.” In that same address, Session said:

As the Attorney General, it is my duty to ensure that
the laws of the United States are enforced and
that the Constitutional order is upheld.
No greater good can be done for the overall health
and well-being of our Republic, than preserving and strengthening
the impartial rule of law. Societies where the
rule of law is treasured are societies that tend to flourish and succeed.


I’m not sure what societies Sessions is referring to here. He may be knowledgeable about the societies of the world past and present, but as a World Studies teacher for a good 15 years, I would argue that I know a little bit too.

Sessions is right: The rule of law is important to helping societies “flourish and succeed.” However, I would argue that flexibility within that rule of law is what makes or breaks a society.

I don't want to get crazy historical on you, but give me a society that “flourished and succeed” and I will give you an example of how that society bent and broke their rule of law because it made sense.

USA, USA, USA! Okay, Okay, Okay I hear ya.

Our first “rule of law,” the Articles of Confederation, lasted about seven years. It wasn’t working, so instead of sticking with something that didn't work, we scrapped it and wrote a new one. So much for the “rule of law” there.  

The next attempt Sessions refers to in his address. The Constitution. It might be the most successful attempt at the “rule of law” in the history of the world, but do you know why? Because it’s amendable. In fact, since its drafting in the late 1780’s, it’s been amended 27 times. Sessions says that there is nothing more important than “preserving and strengthening the impartial rule of law”? However, 27 times our leaders decided it wasn’t “impartial” and amended it.

Turns out it wasn’t “impartial” for Africans to be enslaved. So we amended it.

Turns out it wasn't “impartial” for women not to have the right to vote. So we amended it.

Good thing the Attorney Generals during those times didn’t think:

No greater good can be done for the overall health
and well-being of our Republic, than preserving and strengthening
the impartial rule of law.

Exactly! This is what a lot of folks are saying. Congress needs to pick this up, not the president. Now they have six months to figure it out. They’ve had seven years to figure out healthcare and still nothing. I find it very improbable that they figure out what to do with the Dreamers before DACA expires.  

President Lincoln didn't wait for congress to pick up the slavery issue. In 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Two years later the Thirteenth Amendment followed, changing the “rule of law” and freeing the slaves. After the slaves were freed congress had to figure out how to grant citizenship to all the former slaves. They did this with the Fourteenth Amendment. It awarded citizenship to all people born in the United States. This has been the “rule of law” since.

Under this “rule of law” If a woman comes to the United States undocumented and has a baby, that baby is a citizen, but if that women brought with her a one year old, that child is not a citizen. Yes, we should curb the flow of undocumented people coming into our country. However, do we not have an obligation to those children that are here now?

In February I wrote about this obligation but we had nothing to act on. Now it’s time to act.      

In my last post, I shared a quote from Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal. He said:

For evil to flourish, it only requires good people to do nothing.

A few weeks ago, I was talking about the murder of Heather Heyer and the conflict in Charlottesville. This week, we are talking about the fate of 800,000 Americans. If we do nothing, these good people will lose everything and eventually be dragged out of their country in handcuffs.  

Let’s Do Something

  • Contact your congressional representatives and let them know you support the DREAM Act. You can find resources to do this on the Stand With Dreamers website from FWD.US.
  • Visit DefendDACA.com to learn about events in your community taking place today and other ways you can advocate for our immigrant community.
  • Amplify the voices of DACA recipients and their supporters by sharing recent media coverage from Nightline, the Denver Post, and Reuters.*

*This list was provided by the CEO and Co-Principal of Intrinsic Schools, Melissa Zaikos with the tagline: The steps below to express your support for our students and families. I am proud to work at a school that services ALL of it’s students impartially.     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Step Into the Past

-
When I was riding around DC the day before president Trump's inauguration, I looked at the diverse students on my bus and wrote these words. “ I see in these students’ hope for our country. My eyes tear up as I write that phrase. Let me write it again. I see in these students hope for our country. ” These students were teenagers then. They are in their twenties now. On president Biden's inauguration, fourteen days after January 6, 2021, another young person in their twenties took the stage. Stole the stage, I should say. Amanda Gorman recited her beautiful poem, The Hill We Climb . There is one line in her poem that I think reveals our country’s path forward.   American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. I began writing over four years ago for the first time in my life, to defend the “pride” I inherited. As I wandered around the National Mall the day before president Trump’s inauguration, the placards spoke to me. I was bewildered ...
Read more

The Inconvenienced Majority

-
I am a member of the Inconvenienced Majority.  As of today, April 18, 2020, over 700,000 people in the United States have been confirmed to have COVID-19. Over 37,000 have died. 22 million have applied for unemployment in the past four weeks.  Yet, here I sit, healthy and employed. I am one of the lucky ones. The fact is, there are a lot of us. The vast majority of Americans, over 90%, are healthy and employed right now. The only direct effect COVID-19 has had on us, is that it has inconvenienced us. Hence the name, the Inconvenienced Majority.  We’re working from home or in a relatively safe environment and those paychecks are still rolling in. We’re far away from the emergency departments and intensive care units. We’ve finished at least one TV series and a few books. We’ve set up Zoom calls with our friends and family. We’ve finally cleaned out the tupperware drawer or the garage. We’ve tried our hand at some new recipes or hobbies. We’ve donated to so...
Read more

Most People are Good

-
Image
It’s summer, and that means road trips. We’ve taken a couple long trips to West Virginia and Northern Wisconsin but mostly we have just been tooling around to various places closer to home like beaches, pools, parks and family-friend houses. Call us old fashion (not a stretch for me, I know) but we don’t bring our own music. We don’t use a phone. We don’t have playlists or mixtapes. We don’t even use the CD player. We just listen to the radio. Sure we have our favorite stations when we’re close to home but we also just like to press scan to see what comes up. In the middle of places like Ohio, Indiana or Wisconsin it’s often some evangelical Christian not so politely or subtly letting us know that we’re going to hell. We take that as a good reminder and then we move on to the next station. One time here in Chicago, I popped into a store for a minute and when I came back the kids were listening to Polish rap. Nate liked it so… Leah, Maddie and Nate getting goofy in the b...
Read more