Should We Let Dirty Harry Do the Spring Cleaning?

Is there a time when it makes sense to throw the baby out with the bathwater? During spring cleaning we get rid of the all the detritus. We throw things out to make room for new life. Does the same pertain in the world of ideas. What does it mean to have a cleansing in a society which tolerates a certain degree of impurity and imperfection (aka pluralism) by its very nature? Everyone is threatened by terrorists and many of the terrorists, who are a danger to western democratic societies today, happen to be extremist Muslims. Donald Trump and others have advocated closing our borders to Muslims as a way of making sure no terrorists manage to get into the country. During the World War II even such an august defender of the principals of democracy as President Roosevelt advocated interning Japanese citizens. Indeed there are those who would suspend the constitution in times of war.  Stop and Frisk policies are another form of throwing the baby out with the bathwater since they penalize many young black men to spare the population from the few who might be guilty of crimes. In so doing it has created a disenfranchised class with rap sheets in place of college degrees. The issue may come down to something as basic as reading a suspect his or her Miranda rights. Does the protection of rights transcend even the immediate dangers posed by a criminal? Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry took matters into his own hands when he felt justice wasn’t being met? Are we ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater and join the lynch mob when a killer's on the loose?

"Established By the State"

                                                        photo: Pete Souza

"Established by the state,” are the four words that could kill the Affordable Care Act (“Four Words That Imperil Health Law Were All a Mistake, Writers Now Say,” NYT, 5/25/15).  But let’s take a look at some other words that have been of crucial importance to both Americans and mankind in general to see how these four stand up. In his first inaugural address, March 4, 1933, Roosevelt said, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Kennedy famously supported the West Germans when he said, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” His grammar was wrong (the correct German is “Ich bin Berliner”), but let sleeping dogs die. Critics of the health care plan might call upon Polonius’ famous advice to Laertes, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”  After losing the California gubernatorial race in l962 Nixon said,  “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” “Where’s the Beef?” is what an infamous Wendy’s commercial asked. John Donne said, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” Speaking of fast food the Digital Underground were responsible for these iconic lyrics from “The Humpty Dance.”  “I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom.” Goethe said, “the eternal-feminine lures to perfection," Camus, “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.” And then there was Santayana’s famous, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” However, in his address before the Democratic Convention in l936, Roosevelt also said, “this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." With all the great locutions made in the service of progress, redress and regress, could the rather lame “established by the state” really usurp America’s destiny? Oh and there’s one last quote which is always applicable in matters of jurisprudence, “while the cat’s away, the mice will play."