My blood pressure just spiked. I just read part of the dissent penned by Justice Sonia Sotomayor regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. Here is part of her dissent:
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.” “Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.”
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” Sotomayor wrote.
I felt myself become furious. I wanted to open the front door and yell…I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!!! Where are we living? What is happening? Why would we give such power to any man or woman who holds the seat of President of the United States? Isn’t that why our ancestors crossed the sea…to escape singular power and authority? For liberty and freedom? Read the Declaration of Independence for yourself. Does anything look familiar?
Now breathe. And stand up as did those men from Massachusetts in the northeast, to Georgia in the south. Those men from thirteen colonies standing up to power and saying, “No, not here. Not now. Not ever again.” Was it easy? No. Was it necessary? Yes.
Remember…we the people. Go ahead and celebrate our independence this week. Celebrate the bravery of the few standing up to the mighty empire. Celebrate this experiment in democracy. Celebrate this Declaration of Independence that says in part…
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…
Please vote. Please be kind. Please know that we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and will be the foundation for those yet to come. Act. Do what is yours to do. Be respectful. Be kind. Be powerful in your resolve. It’s important.
With great humility and trust in ‘we the people’
