The Constitution as Toilet Paper

The Constitution as Toilet Paper
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
April 20, 2020

The advent of the Coronavirus has only heightened the awareness of the crime of indoctrination of our young people in the classroom. I’m not just angry, I am frightened; and anybody who loves freedom and liberty had damn well better be angry and frightened as well.

Children, kindergarten through college, are no longer mandated to recite the Pledge of Allegiance; are no longer mandated to study American history; are no longer mandated to learn the vital documents that made the United States the greatest nation on earth - the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. For every American shunning those documents and subjects, and they are the first to stand up and condemn this nation, there are millions trying to get here any way they can.

Make no mistake, I do not approve of those who arrive here illegally seeking government-supported lives and livings. In fact, I have long supported, and now more than ever, the deportation of illegal aliens. Now more than ever? Yes, absolutely, as more than 20 million Americans are out of work - because the government ordered this shutdown. Yet, why is the same government attempting to allow more guest workers to steal even more jobs away from Americans, most of whom are one paycheck away from being completely broke?

Congress, if it would grow a backbone and spine, could put the billions upon billions of dollars given to illegals in the form of welfare, food stamps, medical care, scholarships, and other so-called benefits, in the hands of those bona fide American citizens entitled to that money - more now than ever before. Every illegal in this country is a law breaker with no entitlement to anything other than a return trip to their country of origin. Congress would be upholding the Constitution - part of its oath of office. Any member - Democrat or Republican violating their oath should be removed from office and barred from seeking elected office again.

The indoctrination teaches American students to support open borders, citizenship and voting rights for illegals, government run healthcare, the notion that the United States is guilty of just about all that is wrong in the world, and that it should be ashamed of its past - a past not properly taught. These are the same people clamoring for free college tuition and that the government should absorb their college debt - in other words, passing personal responsibility to others - namely those who never set foot on a college campus, who, by the way, far outnumber those who have. They have been taught that asking voters for identification is racist; that there is racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and any other -ism and -phobia one can conjure up to maintain a level of victimhood. Makes sense why so many of that generation could easily support Senator Bernie Sanders (S-VT), and why so few from older generations fell for his socialist nonsense. For more on how asking for identification is not the least bit racist, https://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2020/04/as-voter-id-goes-so-goes-election.html

One of my favorite quotes, from former President Ronald Reagan, is most apropos here. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

My oldest daughter, soon to be a college graduate, actually said she supports total equality above liberty. Those words sent a shiver down my spine. Aside from being a veritable impossibility, to want to limit one’s own liberty in favor of an idea that couldn’t even qualify for the pages of Thomas More’s Utopia, is so frightening and dangerous. This is certainly not something learned at home. To willingly surrender one’s liberty, is but one step away from slavery. Slavery to a system that will determine your life’s course, take your destination away from you, and take your choices away from you.

She and her fellow travelers of progressive liberal socialists are always shouting about keeping the government out of their bedrooms and uteruses - the abortion on demand crowd. Yet they are the same people to oppose any other kind of choice in people’s lives. They oppose school choice and charter schools, mostly because of the indoctrination pushed by the teachers’ unions. In the current pandemic, they are perfectly amenable to the shuttering of churches and synagogues calling them non-essential, yet cheer because abortion clinics remain open, labeled essential.

The United States Constitution does not become null and void simply because of a crisis. In fact, a crisis is exactly why and when the Constitution is at its most important and necessary. Yet, far too many governors, mayors, attorneys general, and even police chiefs, are treating the Constitution as de facto toilet paper. Some are calling their executive orders an “overreach.” I call it totalitarianism.

Governors Andy Beshear (KY), Andrew Cuomo (NY), Jay Inslee (WA), Phil Murphy (NJ), Gavin Newsom (CA), Ralph Northam (VA), Jared Polis (CO), Gina Raimondo (RI), Gretchen Whitmer (MI), and Tom Wolf (PA) - not coincidentally all Democrats, in one way or another have unilaterally imposed measures in their states that are not only unconstitutional, but make little to no sense. People’s right to worship, assemble, and even their free speech has been commandeered. People are also being punished simply for offering a dissenting opinion.

During this past Holy Week for Christians, Beshear ordered police to cite and fine churchgoers - not for entering the churches, but for remaining in their cars for a service on Easter.

A protest at the statehouse in Raleigh, North Carolina was broken up by police telling the peaceful assemblage that protests are deemed non-essential, and not permitted. Again, another thwarting of Constitutional rights.

In Brighton, Colorado, police handcuffed and put in a squad car, Matt Mooney, 33, himself a former police officer, for the unimaginable crime of playing catch at a local field with his wife and six year old daughter. Mooney noted that while he was being cited for alleged health code violations, none of the three officers involved wore gloves or masks. Being outdoors is encouraged by doctors, and most activities can be accomplished while observing social distancing.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) have instructed residents to call police to report anyone not practicing social distancing or any other health code violation. These are most definitely Gestapo tactics, and I do not use that word lightly or as hyperbole.

In New Jersey, 15 Orthodox Jews were cited for attending the funeral of one of their rabbis in the heavily Orthodox Lakewood community. Even those who remained in their cars were asked for their drivers’ licenses. Seven Orthodox rabbis from Lakewood have died from the Coronavirus. When asked about his ability to nullify the First Amendment, Governor Murphy said that “is above my pay grade.” If Murphy can’t keep his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, he should not hold the office.

Another New Jersey case has Kim Pagan from Toms River facing up to a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail for organizing a protest at the statehouse in Trenton. They could put a woman in jail for exercising her First Amendment right of assembly and free speech in protesting the government. At the same time, convicted sex offenders and child molesters are among the growing list of felons being released prematurely because they may have diabetes and are at risk of contracting the Coronavirus or actually already have the disease. So, while these animals are roaming freely among decent society, an honest citizen could be imprisoned for exercising her Constitutional rights.

My younger daughter, also a collegian, agreed with the authorities in New Jersey, regarding Pagan, calling it a matter of life and death. Again, another young person willing to surrender some liberty. I don’t know where I went wrong with my daughters.

But the winner of the most Draconian elected official award can only be Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Her dictatorial edicts include banning the purchase of seeds. Seeds. Yes, those things you put into the ground with hopes of growing a vegetable garden. A vegetable garden that could produce produce - yeah, I did that -for people who then won’t need to buy it at the supermarket after countless others have touched it. Weed - essential in Michigan; seeds non-essential in Michigan. But tobacco shops and the like are ordered closed. Furniture, carpeting, flooring, paint, and  gardening equipment are off limits - in stores of greater than 50,000 square feet, where other items are available for purchase. Even in vehicles, people are barred from religious services on church or synagogue property. As if banning public worship isn’t bad enough, Whitmer has fishing and hunting on her list of non-essentials. Fishing and hunting are typically done either alone or in very small groups who can easily separate themselves by more than six feet. Adding to the confusion, kayaking, canoeing, and sailing are permitted, however, motor boating and jet skiing are out. She also banned traveling to one’s second home in the state. And while attending a church or synagogue is off limits, abortion clinics are considered essential, as Whitmer said, “abortions are life-sustaining,” in what has to be one of the most tragic oxymorons ever spoken.

What is also terribly disturbing is how the liberal media, obsequious weasels that they are, are applauding these measures, criticizing people for exercising their rights, and not actually examining and parsing whether or not there is overreach by these elected officials. One of the whiners on The View, Joy Behar, said that anyone carrying a firearm at a protest is a domestic terrorist. These are the same media people supporting the closing of gun shops as non-essential. If ever a firearm is essential, it is now, more than ever. The Second Amendment is in the Bill of Rights for the people’s right to protect themselves against a tyrannical government.

Another frightening example of overreach and censorship comes from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Opinions supporting protests and information pertaining to actual protests themselves are being removed from his site as Zuckerberg is calling such postings “misinformation.” Any comment I might make on Facebook supporting or applauding a protest or providing the public with, say, dates and times of such gatherings will be removed, because of one person. Yet the reprehensible things people post about President Trump and Vice President Pence, remain intact on Facebook. Feeding into the demonization of protesters exercising their First Amendment right, on MSNBC some dolt referred to the protesters as “Fox News Nazis.” This column will be linked on Facebook, to be sure.

There is a dangerous loss of liberty being perpetrated by myriad elected officials, and if they are not stopped now, and they get reelected, their regimes will become even more repressive. After all, their reelections demonstrate an approval and acceptance of their behavior and decisions by lemmings willing to surrender to the unexplained, unchecked, and uncontested will of the very few. Why are people willing to surrender their civil liberties so cavalierly? Perhaps if they lived in Cuba, North Korea, the former Soviet Union, or Venezuela for even a short period, they would understand this is a most important time to defend their civil liberties, not abandon them.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.