Through over two hundred years of American history:

MARBURY v. MADISON, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)

[….]

….It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each. [5 U.S. 137, 178]   So if a law be in opposition to the constitution: if both the law and the constitution apply to a particular case, so that the court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the constitution; or conformably to the constitution, disregarding the law: the court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty….

[….]

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) today, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler

#Marriage should be determined by the states, not the Supreme Court. #Stand4Marriage [….] 12:34 PM – 28 Apr 2015

Some of the responses:

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler Apr 28

@RepHartzler So, now you’re in favor of allowing states to grant same-sex marriages? Congratulations on evolving! 1:25 PM – 28 Apr 2015

Sarcasm.

Fake Vicky Hartzler ‏@VickiHartzler Apr 28

@RepHartzler Re: the gavel about to destroy the ring, are you aware that if gays can marry, your marriage will still be legal? 1:27 PM – 28 Apr 2015

John Schultz ‏@theknobboy Apr 28

@RepHartzler So courts overturning laws prohibiting mixed race marriages were in the wrong? 2:36 PM – 28 Apr 2015

The unanswered question.

B Yates ‏@OldDrum

@RepHartzler You believe the Court’s ruling in Loving v. Va is wrong? So the validity of Clarence Thomas’s marriage should be a state matter 7:04 PM – 28 Apr 2015

PUDCAST245 ‏@pudcast245

@RepHartzler Marriage is a Fundamental right of all citizens. Civil rights should not be slave to the popular vote. #marriagequality 12:47 PM – 29 Apr 2015

Welcome to America.

Previously:

Lilly Ledbetter – Politics and Social Justice – April 3, 2013 (April 4, 2013)

Lilly Ledbetter.

Lilly Ledbetter was on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg on April 3, 2013 as a featured speaker for “Politics and Social Justice Week”. After the close of her afternoon press conference she continued to speak with media:

Voice: ….Sometimes people don’t think about the long range impact [crosstalk], about how it’s going to affect…

Lilly Ledbetter:  And my husband died. They didn’t take that into calculation when they stood, if they, and they, they still look at women, “Well, she’s got a husband.” And I still talk to young people, why are we still talking about men’s jobs and women’s jobs? Why don’t we say “a job”? This is a….if you got a job on this campus you’ve got a description. And you’ve got an education requirement, you’ve got an experience requirement, you’ve got all of those things printed out. And when you start looking at that you want to find the best qualified person. You shouldn’t care what color, what sex, what country, or anything, as long as they’re a citizen here.  And pick, select the best person. It’s still, it’s, that’s what my neighbor asked me. What was I doing in that man’s job? It wasn’t a man’s job.

Voices: It’s a job. It’s just a job.

Lilly Ledbetter:  It’s a job.

Question: Do you think part of that is, you know, it’s not polite to talk about money, it’s not polite to ask people what they make, I mean? [Lilly Ledbetter: “Sure”] Do those conversations need to be more prevalent between coworkers or?

Lilly Ledbetter:  Well, see Goodyear said if we discussed our pay, that’s the reason I didn’t know [voice: “Yeah.”], I honestly didn’t know. I mean, that’s one thing people do when your job is threatened, you will not do anything to get, to lose it. And, uh, I didn’t know. And, and guessing I knew, common sense told me, since they had had so few women and they still had so few women they would prefer not to have them. So I knew that I wasn’t getting exactly what the men were, but if I had been in reason. There were years that I made below the minimum. And the lady who testified on my behalf at trial and had left and so had twenty-two years seniority and service, she was making below the minimum as an area manager, the same job I had. Below the minimum. That’s not right.

Question: But, do you think that, you know, companies at that time encouraged sort of the idea that not talking about salaries, because this would basically cause people to say, “Wait a minute, I’m not,” you know?

Voice: Exactly.

Lilly Ledbetter: It is. They think it’s [crosstalk] internally.

Question: The culture, yeah, the, the culture is encouraged generally [crosstalk] and so it, it works in…

Lilly Ledbetter:  Yeah. See, Senator Tom Harkin has a bill that would require corporations, uh, to just post. See, when cost of living increases, you know, I may hire in on an area manager’s job or supervisor, and here was the job pay structure. This was what I knew I might get some day if I topped out. But, later on, when cost of living increased, the top, and the mid, and the bottom, I couldn’t find out because the company never posted it. It was a big secret. [voices: “Yeah.”] No one knew. And no one ever knew what the maximum was. In fact, every once in a while, I later found out, that some, one or two of the men had made, gotten so much money until they no longer  got qualified for the overtime. Because their salaries were so great, until, even if they did work over they still was over what the union people was getting. It’s, and it’s not, see, and I don’t understand, simply, and I know that I’m not up to think on that level, but, uh, it’s probably why I never had a higher job [laughter], but, the union people’s salaries, everybody knows what the union people make. And most of your state and federal, schools and jobs, they all know what everybody makes. [voice: “It’s a public record.”] Now sometimes they make it a little harder to find out, but you can find out. And, and it doesn’t seem to bother people. So, I, I don’t, I don’t know. And it just, you know, women, when we get our pay, we go out into the community, we’ll spend it. We’ll buy better food, we’ll buy better clothing, we may trade cars, we may buy big, and those kids will have a better education and better health care. And it benefits the community, the state, and the nation.

Voice: And, ultimately, a more secure retirement.

Lilly Ledbetter:  That’s right. That’s right. And then the government doesn’t have to kick in and keep everybody up.

Voices: Exactly. Exactly.

Voice: Thank you all for…

Lilly Ledbetter:  Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much, enjoyed it.

Sharing a passage from Lilly Ledbetter’s (right) “Grace and Grit” at a late evening reception.

The tides were shifting in the founding era that brought forth our nation in the Revolutionary Year of 1776.

On New Year’s Day, after a speech by King George III is read condemning the colonist’s rebellion, General Washington unfurls the new red-and-white striped Grand Union flag on Prospect Hill overlooking Boston Harbor. On January 9th, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” is published. The machines of popular persuasion were revving up-the enterprise had begun.

As the American colonists contemplated severing their political ties with Mother England, a new vision of a people self-determining their own form of government was taking shape. Ameliorating the causes of oppression, tyranny and calamity opened the door to the American experiment.

The principles for separation were laid out in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Recently, new imaging technology employed by the Library of Congress has revealed in an early draft of the Declaration, Jefferson changed the word “subjects”, as in Imperial subjects, to “citizens”. It may have been a slip of the pen, but even so, it clearly shows the status quo was not so easily left behind.

Library of Congress preservation director Dianne van der Reyden said during the announcement of the discovery,

“It’s almost like we can see him write ‘subjects’ and then quickly decide that’s not what he wanted to say at all, that he didn’t even want a record of it… really, it sends chills down the spine.”

The Founders and Framers vision of a different reality required a transcendent resolve to become so, as this new conception of freedom required a falling away and letting go of obsolete memes; ways of thinking no longer in tune with the evolution of human civilization.

On Fourth of July, we celebrate the origins of America, and revere the champions of Liberty that fought to create a nation of equals setting in motion a continuing, evolving process based upon the immutable ideals of freedom, equality and dignity for all; Spiritually sound principles of governance. This struggle was not solely played out on a field of war, it was fought on a field of ideas and first in the minds of women and men who led the way.

Six years ago, while in the Holy Land, I imagined the stormy tempest our beloved Abraham Lincoln, American messiah, was forced to weather to fulfill his destiny.    

This Fourth of July, 2004 here in the Jordan Valley makes me think about the kind of patriotism as expressed by our fore-fathers. What was at the core of their motivations? What empowers a leader to stay the course even in the midst of a crowd of naysayers? This has to be a patriotism not about waving flags of a nation state, but rather a fervor for the love of humanity with an unshakable resolve. Driven by higher standards of understanding, not the next quarterly business report or electoral cycle. Great thinkers and statesmen like Jefferson, Adams, Washington… Lincoln.

Picture this.

Oval Room. White House. “Mr. President, have you considered letting a few of the states, say four or five, continue their program of indentured servitude, and placate this upcoming rift – save your Presidency – let’s get to making the country prosperous again.”

“You mean slavery, don’t you?” Abe said.

“Well, you use such a harsh word, I’m sure that through some governmental initiative, we could give the blackies some taste of real citizenry.”

Abe stared at him, unemotionally. The politician started to get uneasy with the silence, and attempted another tactic. “Your wife has relatives in the South, Mr. President, do you really want to continue to wage this war with states that have taken a Constitutionally justifiable position? Save your Presidency, the South has already mobilized thousands of men in Virginia, it’s going to be a blood bath.” He paused. The tall gaunt Lincoln resembled a tree, not moving, not betraying any reaction. The man looked around, and then continued.

“Maybe the Carolinas, Virginia – If you insist on hammering through the position of the Abolitionists, who knows what that will do to the economy of our whole country? It will be destroyed. And who knows, with a weakened state like that, a European alliance could reclaim the Americas, no, no it’s too risky. Save your Presidency, Abraham. Please think about what you’re doing.”

“Look sir, I don’t know what kind of politics are usually practiced around these parts of the Eastern coast, but back where I come from politicians that waver like the flavor of the day get run out of town – I have not come this far, educated by my dear Bible – the Word of God, to come to some cockamamie solution that says half slavery is alright – that half-citizenry is alright. I know if I let this secession occur, it will be the end of us as a great nation. It will be the end of the American dream. And over my dead body will we end what so many of our forefathers sacrificed their lives for – and the future, no doubt, holds as many sacrifices.

The red on that flag means something to me sir, and if I were you I would cut yourself to see if your blood is red, because the men who have died to give prosperity to this country were true red-blooded Americans. I fear the day when the men of this country will no longer understand that concept. I fear that the prosperity we engender, could be the lap of luxurious complacency that will be our downfall. If this secession is successful, we will fall into the pit of nation warring despair that the European continent has wallowed in for oh so many centuries. No, I do not intend any half measure with the sanctity of this God given freedom. I know I am here to finish Jefferson’s work that was so erroneously compromised out of our Great Declaration. I know I am here not to break the Constitution, but rather defend the hopes, wishes, and dreams of our forefathers. I will enact emergency powers legislation to preserve this Union under God, to preserve Humanity’s last hope for survival. We The People. If this Great War rips this country to shreds, in shreds it will still stand as One. It will stand tall, shredded and great. You are excused, sir.”

With that Abraham Lincoln walked out of the Oval office, and thanked God for the angel of distraction that made him to be so resolute to carry out his purpose. To save the last hope of humanity, The Government of the people and by the people. All people. E pluribus unum, you see?

It’s an evolved extension of Lincoln’s and Jefferson’s work that views humanity as one tribe, as one people.

In an earlier column on James Cameron’s Avatar,

“As professed in a classic 60’s Star Trek episode, the values set forth in America’s founding documents must apply to all — or they mean nothing. Of course it would be unwise and currently impossible to extend the reach of Constitutional protections to all humanity, but purposefully participating and benefiting from the subjugation and exploitation of other peoples is anathema to any conception of moral consistency.”

On this Fourth of July, remember the unsettling nature of progress as it seeks to overturn ideas that no longer serve. 1776 was unsettling, as was our Civil War. Be open to the fact that a new way to look at things may seem alarming at first, but in the big picture, that’s a good thing. Unnerving concepts like freeing a nation
or freeing slaves were, in the end, the right thing to do. In the near future, we may be faced with new ideas that seem just as threatening as those were to some in years past. Keep in mind that it’s far easier to like what you know, than to know what you like.

Happy Fourth of July, America.

I think the last flick I’ve seen more than three times in theaters was Star Wars in 1977 when I was a sprite 11 years old. Yesterday, I saw James Cameron’s “Avatar” for the third time eagerly sharing each viewing with family and friends. Avatar’s latest box office has it ranked as the second highest grossing film of all time behind Titanic, another film directed by Cameron.

The 3D and CGI technological leaps Avatar entertains scatters a little pixie dust over one’s eyes summoning the sparkling magic of the movies we experienced as film-going adolescents. Words like “immersive” and “consuming” have been used to describe the digital deluge of artistry washing over the audience when literally bounding about the alien landscape of Pandora; a life-lush moon orbiting a gas giant planet in the Alpha Centuri tri-star complex. It is a “must-see” in big screen 3D.

There have been passionate criticisms of Cameron’s latest epic, but to me, these negative responses have not been a function of the film’s narrative per se, as much as subjective expectations projected upon one of the most expensive and anticipated movies in years. Avatar is like the “President” of feature films, and being situated at the top of Hollywood’s heap, has a difficult time pleasing everybody. But in many ways Avatar is living up to its role becoming bigger and grander than just about any other Hollywood film. Not only is it spearheading a revolution in consumer electronics and television with 3D flat screens and channels springing up (Sony, ESPN, DirecTV, etc), but it also represents one of the most penetrating and multi-faceted social commentaries to be delivered through a mainstream vehicle in years — without a doubt James Cameron’s most progressive offering.    

With Hollywood stick-figure simplicity and in no uncertain terms, Avatar’s plot revolves around a set of political propositions:

* the transcendent value of life’s interdependency

* anti-corporate exploitation

The story follows a paraplegic ex-Marine, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who has been offered a gig with a multi-stellar corporation bent upon mining a rare mineral on the moon Pandora. However, in order to gain access to the biggest lode of “unobtanium”, the corporation needs to displace an indigenous population of hundreds of ten-feet tall lithe and quasi-feline blue humanoids; known as the “Na-vi”. Sully is an Avatar Driver who remotely controls a genetically grown ten foot tall Na’vi body with his nervous system. Jake’s Avatar is able to breathe Pandora’s exotic atmosphere and interact with the endemic flora and fauna; eventually, enabling him to “relate” more effectively with the Na’vi natives as one of their own.  

Interdependence of all living beings and environmental stewardship  

We learn that the Na’vi practice a religion of connected harmony with their Mother, the life essence of Pandora, or perhaps all life, called “Eywa”. It is explained both scientifically and through religious narrative that there is a network of energy connecting all life, and that this energy cannot be possessed; it is only borrowed and returns to Eywa after the natural cycle of life and death. Like Native Americans, when the Na’vi hunt, a “clean kill” has the Na’vi hunter praying to the soul of the dying animal expressing gratitude for the sustenance provided to The People. Unnecessary death, destruction and environmental degradation are all considered an abomination to that which is sacred; harmony with nature and the preservation of the balance of life are principle tenets practiced by the Na’vi.

Jake Sully is taught the native ways, a la Kevin Costner in “Dances with Wolves”. He is torn between two cultures: his mercenary Marine brethren doing the bidding of a profiteering conglomerate — and his new family and way of life with the Na’vi. The human invaders are chasing down profits and resources for a healthy quarterly business report back home at the expense of utterly desecrating the embodiment of Na’vi life, their towering living lair in the form of an acres tall “Home-tree” and, in the process, killing many members of the Na’vi clan. Sully chooses to defend the Na’vi “good guys” versus the militaristic corporate “bad guys”.

This first layer of story in Avatar recalls many scenes from our colonial history of conquering Empires and overrun indigenous peoples, indeed, we are still beset by the depredations of resource and human exploitation whether oil politics in the Middle East or sweatshop servitude in Asian factories supplying $3 t-shirts to the West. As I have expressed in the past, there are moral and spiritual inconsistencies with having our dollars dictate to the manner in which we treat other human beings, beyond that which we would tolerate for ourselves. As professed in a classic 60’s Star Trek episode, the values set forth in America’s founding documents must apply to all — or they mean nothing. Of course it would be unwise and currently impossible to extend the reach of Constitutional protections to all humanity, but purposefully participating and benefiting from the subjugation and exploitation of other peoples is anathema to any conception of moral consistency.    

Oil wars and destruction of Earth’s environment

This film is clear about where our current problems, if unaddressed, will thrust humanity in the near future. Our hero protagonist, Jake Sully, was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down while serving with a Marine Recon Battalion in Venezuela; and our villain, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), also with Marine Recon, was wounded years earlier in Nigeria (read: oil wars). After destroying all the green on planet Earth and killing their “Mother”, the humans are out and about the universe threatening other ecosystems. The implied takeaway, let’s not destroy our environment and export a corporate driven cancer of consumption into the universal community.    

Without revealing too much of the plot’s twists and turns and ups and downs, some observations that sets Avatar aside for special reflection deserve mentioning.

Newscorp as ecological evangelist?

There is a deep irony in the fact that Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp and Twentieth Century Fox have heavily promoted Avatar and its anti-corporate exploitation message, being that many times Newscorp and FOX News often cast political subjects in a very self-serving and corporatist light. Everyone is familiar with the “spin-zone” that is FOX News, but not so aware that FOX’s parent corp proliferates varying degrees of political spin throughout every time zone on planet Earth.

I am all too familiar with the breadth of Newscorp’s global holdings — satellites, newspapers, networks, publishers, studios — and the ramifications of all those venues consolidated and helmed by one political viewpoint are profound. The proof is in how Newscorp has lead the way in transforming news and objective journalism into a sensationalized circus of commentator clowns. The red noses are cute (Beck) but not when the circus tent collapses (ecosystem). While working for 20th in a past life, I helped produce a special project for Mr. Murdoch detailing the myriad tendrils and tentacles wrapped around virtually every media market around the planet, back then, we affectionately referred to him as “Darth”. It is awesome to behold the collection of corporations that make up Newscorp, one of a handful of consolidated media behemoths.  

Kudos have to go to Cameron for demanding the creative independence to frame his opus in exactly the way he wanted, and although Newscorp profits will have been lifted by Avatar, the meaning and message is clearly at odds with Newscorp religion. Good news is, making positive messaging profitable combined with real action on the ground will help us surmount the environmental and economic challenges facing humanity today. Surprisingly, Newscorp is doing its part with Avatar.  

Avatar’s technology as a gateway to understanding compassion  

Another deeper symbolic layer in Avatar is the manner in which Jake Sully’s evolution takes place, his character arc. As an Avatar Driver, Sully’s mind and nervous system is projected into another body, physicalizing the notion of empathy, literally embodying the concept of “getting out of yourself”. This aspect of showing empathy through a technological device that handholds the audience into what it really means to look through the eyes of another has great educational value for young minds. Sully “sees” the injustice looking through the eyes of the oppressed, and makes the choice to fight it. Kids and teenagers today are enraptured with real avatars through online chat rooms, websites like Second Life and first-person video games; they are all too familiar with the abstraction that takes place in projecting the first person perspective into second and third person. What Cameron’s film does so subtly for his audience is connect the experience of ego projection into a morally and socially responsible message and all the while makes it entertaining. It’s fun to do the right thing, a mythology worth promoting.

Responsible media  

Avatar joins the ranks of a handful of feature films over the years that have shaped public opinion and culture. Influential works like Gabriel Over the White House (1933), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Apocalypse Now (1979) or The China Syndrome (1979) have all had significant social impact. This is filmmaking at its finest, unfortunately a rare breed in an entertainment sphere that has largely been shown to degrade values more readily than build them up. Avatar reports for duty on the other side of this trend, and fosters a responsible and timely worldview in a roller coaster of a fun ride.

Don’t miss this milestone in movie making, I highly recommend it. Six stars.