Consent of the governed?

Today’s posting is short and not so sweet. I’m finding it more and more difficult to reconcile a couple of key concepts supposedly underlying our democracy. On the one hand, in the Declaration of Independence, 2nd paragraph, we have

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.

On another hand (I suspect this may  involve more than two hands), there’s the legal definition of insurrection (remember January 6, 2021?)

A rising or rebellion of citizens against their government, usually manifested by acts of violence.

Under federal law, it is a crime to incite, assist, or engage in such conduct against the United States.

use your voice: VOTE

Photo by J. Harrington

Here comes that third hand (or maybe a third rail):    

 4.-2 That, whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed, in any state, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by this act, it shall be lawful for the president of the United States to call forth the militia of such state, or of any other state or states, as may be necessary to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed; and the use of militia so to be called forth may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the commencement of the then next session of congress.

Probably it’s just as well I never went to law school because, for the life of me, I can’t reconcile the language of the Declaration with current federal law, with the fact that the president hasn’t decided that the Texas abortion legislation doesn’t constitute the "execution of the laws of the United States being obstructed." I do, however, remember federal troops being sent to visit Governor Wallace to enforce school desegregation. Are children, and their education, more important than the women who bore them? Does a child’s right to education supercede a woman’s right to health care? Can anyone explain to me how this (these?) particular balancing act(s) is/are supposed to work?

A Language

By Susan Stewart

I had heard the story before 

about the two prisoners, alone 

in the same cell, and one 

gives the other lessons in a language. 

Day after day, the pupil studies hard—

what else does he have to do?—and year 

after year they practice, 

waiting for the hour of release. 

They tackle the nouns, the cases, and genders, 

the rules for imperatives and conjugations, 

but near the end of his sentence, the teacher 

suddenly dies and only the pupil 

goes back through the gate and into the open 

world. He travels to the country of his new 

language, fluent, and full of hope. 

Yet when he arrives he finds 

that the language he speaks is not 

the language that is spoken. He has learned 

a language one other person knew—its inventor, 

his cell-mate and teacher.

                          And then the other 

evening, I heard the story again. 

This time the teacher was Gombrowicz, the pupil 

was his wife. She had dreamed of learning 

Polish and, hour after hour, for years 

on end, Gombrowicz had been willing to teach 

her a Polish that does not and never 

did exist. The man who told 

the story would like to marry his girlfriend. 

They love to read in bed and between

them speak three languages. 

They laughed—at the wife, at Gombrowicz, it wasn’t

clear, and I wasn’t sure that they 

themselves knew what was funny. 

I wondered why the man had told 

the story, and thought of the tricks 

enclosure can play. A nod, or silence, 

another nod, consent—or not, as a cloud 

drifts beyond the scene and the two 

stand pointing in different directions 

at the very same empty sky.

                           Even so, there was something 

else about the story, like teaching 

a stunt to an animal—a four-legged 

creature might prance on two legs 

or a two-legged creature might 

fall onto four.

                           I remembered, 

then, the miscarriage, and before that 

the months of waiting: like baskets filled 

with bright shapes, the imagination 

run wild. And then what arrived:

the event that was nothing, a mistaken idea, 

a scrap of charred cloth, the enormous 

present folding over the future, 

like a wave overtaking 

a grain of sand. 

                           There was a myth 

I once knew about twins who spoke 

a private language, though one 

spoke only the truth and the other 

only lies. The savior gets mixed 

up with the traitor, but the traitor 

stays as true to himself as a god. 

All night the rain falls here, falls there,

and the creatures dream, or drown, in the lair.

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