When a boat is loose with no one at the helm it drifts where the water takes it. A nation is the same way when those who are supposed to be the guardians of the public good refuse to steer where the directions indicate it must go to remain viable as a nation. Recent events indicate that the United States is adrift, but in this instance those who are supposed to steer the course of constitutional government are steering according to their own subjective agendas.

It appears that those who are supposed to help guide according to rules don’t understand the rules. A judge ruled that a man who is intent on helping destroy the United States can’t be held as the enemy and either must have charges filed or turned loose. Not to get into the finer points of his ruling, the question is what right does a judge have to rule that the enemy must be either charged criminally or be turned loose?

The next one is the ruling that those who are under 18 years old at the time they commit a crime that can bring the death penalty, can’t be put to death because they are children. The ruling was a 5-4 majority which followed the liberal line by the five liberal judges who used arguments from international law in the finding, saying that the foreign governments don’t like the death sentence. They additionally said that the death penalty for those under 18 violated the Eighth Amendment outlawing cruel and unusual punishment.

The last travesty is the death of Terri Schiavo. She had done nothing and was condemned to die because she supposedly said she wanted to die instead of living as she has for many years. The only word that that was what she wanted is from the mouth of her husband and a couple of others.

Our government is given certain duties under the Constitution to protect us where it is possible, such as military action, and to prosecute those when caught who violated the law. In this regard the government through the Constitution is bound by Romans 13 which says it to be a terror to those who engage in bad deeds.

When the Supreme Court ruled that those under 18 can’t be put to death they showed a lack of understanding of our Constitutional Republic type of government and the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment. The court refused to recognize that states have a right to pass laws and execute those laws as long as the laws don’t inherently violate any rights guaranteed by the respective constitutions. The death penalty doesn’t violate anyone’s right in any manner because in a moral society those who commit crimes forfeit their right to live when they take the lives of others. Society may decide to show mercy, but if mercy isn’t given that is the consequence of committing a capital crime. Through the ruling on teens under 18 the court has made itself the self appointed arbiter of what is moral or not moral without regard to any standard but their own liberal and twisted ideology.

The court needs to explain how the death penalty for murderers is cruel and unusual because of age. Cruel and unusual would be a punishment that would produce extreme pain for long periods with or without death coming quickly and unusual would be some form of execution that would defy human reasoning and sensibilities.

In two of the rulings the courts ignored the reality of the crimes and the intent behind them.  Increasingly the courts and society are showing sympathy for the criminals and none for the victims. In the Schiavo case an innocent person who couldn’t defend herself was executed by starvation. If that isn’t cruel and unusual punishment, what would be, pray tell?  Since Terri is older that 17 it must have been okay to kill her. 

When our government leaders ignore the Constitution and its plain meaning, and when they lose sight of their responsibilities to protect the innocent and punish the guilty with penalties that fit the crime, we have a nation that is being steered to destruction like the boat headed for the water fall. Instead of honoring God as the founders did, the liberal justices have become the Supreme Gods of the United States and the lower court judges the little gods. It is akin to the inmates running the asylum.

© 02-20-2005 DEC