Ramblings on Rights and Responsibilities

“I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.” – Aristotle
“The people's good is the highest law.” – Cicero
“The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.” – Andrew Jackson

Prior to my vacation last week I had been in several discussions with various people about rights, The Constitution, law, and our roles as citizens in a Representative Democracy. Next semester many of you will be taking my Environmental Law course. While at the beach I read a good book - The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America by Phillip K. Howard. Saturday we all celebrated Independence Day. Do you sense a common theme here?

Of course the topic of Law in America is far too expansive for me to cover in one blog, or even in a lifetime of blogs. But I will share with you some thoughts that I had while baking in the Sandlapper Sun. (But first a disclaimer – I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor do I plan on being a Lawyer. I am just an Environmental Program Manager who also happens to think about the Law of the Land). I will begin with a story that I am certain at least a few of you are familiar with.

Daniel was a very wise man, and was also honest and hard working. These qualities were as uncommon in Daniel’s time as they are in ours, so King Darius took note and placed Daniel in the highest of positions where Daniel served him very well. Of course where there is position, there is jealousy. The Kings other wise men sought to get rid of Daniel … but how? Knowing that Daniel was a religious man the other governors tricked King Darius into making a law that they knew Daniel would break (a side note here – religious intolerance has been around for a long time…but very few people notice it unless it is intolerance against their own religion – just something to think about). "O great king, you are so wonderful that no one should pray to anyone but you." They said. The king gave in to his conceit (a trait that is as common now as it ever has been) not thinking about the ramifications. Anybody who didn’t worship the king was to be thrown into the lions den. The king made his decree in such a way that nobody, not even he, could change it. As soon as Daniel knelt for evening prayer, his enemies had him arrested. The king was distraught and ashamed, because he knew that he had been tricked into sacrificing his best and most loyal subject.

Luckily for Daniel, the story has a happy ending. Daniel’s God knew that he was a righteous man, and saved him from the lions. Justice was served when the King found Daniel alive the next day; he ordered the other Governors be thrown into the lions den. A good preacher could deliver a lot of sermons on this topic, but luckily for you I’m not a good preacher. My purpose for introducing this to you is the concept of Common Sense in Law. We are lucky enough to live in a country where people are not thrown to the lions for their religious (or political, social, or other) views. We have a system. It’s far from perfect, but it is arguably the best in the world. But I am going to have to go with Philip Howard…we need a little more common sense infused in our system. As King Darius discovered, rigid laws lead to bad situations.

Surely, the USA doesn’t have such asinine and rigid rules, right? Our founding fathers framed our Constitution in such a way as to allow maximum freedoms (speech, religion, bear arms, assembly, etc.) while still allowing for future changes (the Bill of Rights being a major one). That’s not too rigid at all. Since the time of our independence, though, we have put the yoke of law on ourselves, sometimes to a fault. Two perfect examples – In 1988 Nuns of the Missionaries of Charity (an order headed by Mother Teresa herself) planned on building a homeless shelter in South Bronx. When they found a Madonna in a fire gutted building they thought that perhaps their mission was being blessed by The Almighty Himself. They met with the Mayor, bought the building (and one right beside it) for $1 each from New York City, and set aside $500,000 (a large sum, especially in 1988) for renovations. All was going well until their building permit was denied. The nuns, in addition to their vow of poverty, avoid the use of modern conveniences. Thus there were no appliances in the plan…and no elevators. New York City requires elevators in any new or renovated multistory building. The additional cost (plus the hassle of all of the hearings to get a waiver) caused the nuns to reconsider. Their efforts could be spent helping people elsewhere, without the hindrance of bureaucracy. Thus the homeless of South Bronx remained homeless, for want of an elevator.

The EPA usually does a fine job protecting the environment, but occasionally even they miss the mark. In one case they tried desperately to control benzene emissions. After much debate between scientists and technicians, they required specific equipment to be placed in the smokestack of particular facilities to control the benzene. One particular company was glad to comply, but to the tune of $31 Million at one of their refineries. A chance encounter a few years later led to an EPA agent sitting on the dock talking with an official from the company. The company had significant benzene emissions, but not from the smoke stack. The fugitive emissions were coming from the dock where the fuel was transferred. A simple (and relatively inexpensive) fix later, and the problem was abated. The goal of that Law (cleaner and safer air) was noble by anyone’s standard. The specifics of the law, however, totally missed the mark. They were specific, costly, and failed to solve the problem. Rigidity, as Darius discovered, is usually doomed to failure.

Philip Howard summarizes it nicely in his book when he says “Conquering human nature was not the idea when our founders devised a new nation around the freedom of each human. Avoiding coercion by making law into a detailed manual only assures another form of coercion. Modernizing democracy with a huge legal document crushes what may be one of democracy’s most important qualities, continual trial and error”. So I think it is high time that we start injecting a little of that common sense back into our system. We can start by educating the general public. Then we can start holding people responsible for their decisions. That includes holding ourselves responsible for our own actions. For every right that we claim, we must claim an equal responsibility. The Right to Bear Arms must be tempered with the responsibility to carry them safely, using them for the purposes of food or protection. The right to keep pets must be tempered with the responsibility to keep them safely, securely, and humanely. The right to speak freely must be tempered by the responsibility of thinking about the consequences of our words before they leave us. And the right to live in this free nation comes with the responsibility of working for it. To quote Ralf Nader “The only place where democracy comes before work is in the dictionary.”