Letters on Kansas Supreme Court, Brownback holes, presidential farce, evil of authority

Kansas Supreme Court is playing its role

We learn in high school that our government is separated into three branches. The legislative branch creates laws, the executive carries out the laws, and the judiciary interprets the laws.

All laws enacted by the legislature must be consistent with the federal or state constitution. Laws adopted by the legislature inconsistent with the constitution are “unconstitutional,” null and void.

It has long been settled law in American jurisprudence that the judicial branch alone has the power to decide what laws are inconsistent with a constitution.

A part of the Kansas Constitution requires that Kansas schools be suitably financed. Our state Supreme Court has repeatedly told our Legislature that its efforts to meet this constitutional obligation were inequitable and therefore unconstitutional. Still, the Legislature refuses to accept the court’s ruling.

Enough is enough.

If it is at all possible, the Supreme Court should impress the general funds of the state with a constructive trust in favor of the mandate of our constitution to suitably fund our schools.

Brownback holes

My wife and I walked past a construction hole that had just been filled. There was previously no fill dirt around, so I wondered out loud where they got the dirt to fill it. My wife noticed another hole across the street that had not been there the day before. It became clear that the workers had filled the old hole by digging a new hole. Without hesitation, my wife exclaimed, “They should call that a ‘Brownback hole.’”

From now on, any hole filled by digging another hole shall be known as a “Brownback hole.”

Presidential farce

With revelations about Trump University, and Donald Trump’s attacks against the federal judge in that case, we have stepped through the Looking Glass. Sadly, this is not silly season – it’s scary season.

Trump demonstrates astounding egomania. He believes he is infallible and has said as much. I’m not aware of any human who could ever sanely make that claim.

History is littered with similar egomaniacs. It has consistently shown these men to be flawed demagogues with delusions of grandeur. Sadly, when they fell hundreds of thousands suffered with them, and whole countries ended up paying for their excesses.

Watching Republican figures protest Trump’s latest racist remarks, while trying to avoid using the word “racist,” would be funny if it were not so tragic. They should have the courage of their convictions and say, “Yes, Trump’s a racist, but I support him anyway.” They should show some integrity and embrace Trump, warts and all. That, in turn, would tell us a lot about them.

Evil of authority

We have all seen it. A strong parent causes the will of a child to wither and die. The dominant spouse stunts the personal growth of the mate. A social organization squeezes individuals into a mold.

External authority always constrains and, if unrestrained, eventually destroys internal self-confidence. And once self-confidence has been decimated, the evil of authority begins to manifest itself in predictable (but usually unanticipated) ways: dependence or looting, sloth or idleness, despair or rebellion, depression or anger, suicide or violence, isolation or gangs, and sadly more.

It doesn’t matter if the authority in question is consciously malevolent or unconsciously condescending, or some mix of the two. In fact, the latter is, perhaps, the most tragic, because the condescending authority almost always believes it knows what is best for the other and almost never sees the terrible damage it is doing, until it is too late.

In America today we have a cascading epidemic of collapsing self-confidence caused by authority. And the authority that is most blameworthy is federal authority – over everything from our money to our schools. This authority is systematically stripping states and (in the case of Puerto Rico) territories, cities and communities, citizens and families of their God-given opportunity to live in self-confidence.

Although by now it should be obvious to everyone that authority is the problem in America, those who have been stripped of their self-confidence can seldom find the “way back” without help. But who will help America?

This story was originally published June 9, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Letters on Kansas Supreme Court, Brownback holes, presidential farce, evil of authority."