As Frederick Douglass so pithily observed, legal rights are preserved by three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.
If one is going to argue that the rule of law does not work, that argument is tantamount to arguing that the first two boxes have failed and it is time to open up the cartridge box.
As Frederick Douglass so pithily observed, legal rights are preserved by three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.
If one is going to argue that the rule of law does not work, that argument is tantamount to arguing that the first two boxes have failed and it is time to open up the cartridge box.
If one is not prepared to argue that now is the time for civil war to replace the existing governing institutions in the US with (hopefully) more effective, more virtuous, and more trustworthy institutions, one is left with the institutions we have.
Is this a time for civil war? Is this the time to open up the cartridge box? Good question, and I don't pretend to have the answer. However, abandoning the legal institutions completely and resorting to vigilantism is not seeking to preserve either human rights or civil liberties, but giving way to anarchy and chaos.
If folks are not willing to open the cartridge box, we had best find a way to make the ballot box and the jury box work. If folks are willing to open the cartridge box, we had better be damn certain of the objective and that it is an improvement over the current system, or anarchy and chaos will be the result--in that scenario everyone loses.
If the cartridge box is opened up for anything other than the defense of the rule of law as the means to ensure the rights and liberties we hold dear, no good outcome will be had.
As Frederick Douglass so pithily observed, legal rights are preserved by three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.
If one is going to argue that the rule of law does not work, that argument is tantamount to arguing that the first two boxes have failed and it is time to open up the cartridge box.
If one is not prepared to argue that now is the time for civil war to replace the existing governing institutions in the US with (hopefully) more effective, more virtuous, and more trustworthy institutions, one is left with the institutions we have.
Is this a time for civil war? Is this the time to open up the cartridge box? Good question, and I don't pretend to have the answer. However, abandoning the legal institutions completely and resorting to vigilantism is not seeking to preserve either human rights or civil liberties, but giving way to anarchy and chaos.
If folks are not willing to open the cartridge box, we had best find a way to make the ballot box and the jury box work. If folks are willing to open the cartridge box, we had better be damn certain of the objective and that it is an improvement over the current system, or anarchy and chaos will be the result--in that scenario everyone loses.
If the cartridge box is opened up for anything other than the defense of the rule of law as the means to ensure the rights and liberties we hold dear, no good outcome will be had.