THE FINE POINTS OF DEFINING FINE POINTS

     The public, those who think, elect politicians to discuss the fine points of public policy. Sometimes we have a problem defining what the fine points are and how sharp they must be. Many of those people, who prefer less sharply defined fine points, tell us we need fewer of the people who discuss those fine points. When we have people competent to discuss all of those fine points, and then structure them into public policy that benefits the greater number of the public, things work fine. Our tensions either melt away or are lessened. 

     Those fine points of public policy that are generally accepted started out as public gatherings either protesting against, or for changes. Some of that is done at a higher than normal decibel. Fine points are not so finely understood at those higher decibels. Thus, the legislative quandary we sometimes find ourselves in. Some of those people who gifted us, or imposed on us, these new standards are lousy lawmakers and things don't work out fine. Some are able to transition from passion to reason. Some think reason is defined by, "cuz I say so". I'm pretty sure you can see how important it is to have a lot more people who successfully transition to reason. Or,  maybe you don't. Maybe you are happy with these explosions of swamp gas as law-makers. 

     Some of us are old enough to remember when those groups using the higher decibels were successful in ending a war in South-East Asia, promoting civil rights, sexual rights, and others of those pesky human rights. Those of us with such memories mostly look back on those times proudly, fewer numbers don't. Some of our greatest legislators were capable of transitioning from carrying a bullhorn to discussing law. Some legislators were elected for their truculent opposition to those people. Lately those who have not successfully transitioned to reason have had majority control, for no particular reason than, they are gonna take your guns! Or, they are gonna "give gays special rights", or they are godless. During these times the fine points of legislating were not clearly understood not to mention the fine points of secular society and separation of church and state, and things are not fine. 

Most recently, we saw a display of civil disobedience that shocked those of us who participated in civil disobedience in our younger years. We have searched our memories, some of us still have memories the others seem to be in that party where fine points are poorly understood, to find examples of what we did that were similar to this more recent group. We poured blood on draft board files, they spilled blood in the nations capital. We beat rhythms on 5-gallon plastic buckets, they beat rhythms on the capltol police heads. We pulled down Confederate statues, they walked out with the Speaker of the House' podium. Others of us may have been tree-huggers. We may have damaged logging equipment, or spiked trees. That may have been extreme and we are not always discerning about where extreme begins and ends. We may well have flung feces at people and equipment destroying old-growth forests. We did not defecate on the floors of the capital, or urinate in corners. We had standards, still have. The closest we got to the capitol was to try to levitate the Pentagon, some distance from the capitol. It was a failure that many of us did not expect to succeed but were high enough to find it amusing. Some thought our negative thoughts were the cause of that failure. There are fine distinctions there, as well. Still others have a trouble defining elite. Some of us think the definition is a descriptive noun, to be a member of a superior class. Others see it more as a verb defining someone who has attained distinction by issue of merit or attainment. A word not capitalized. The confusion between elite and elitism falls along that same left/right spectrum in the legislature. Some think legislators are elitist for being considered worthy of representing us. 

     This is our history. Sometimes, most of the time, we do noble things that are a credit to fine thinking. Often we do things that embarrass our history during those same times. The difference is in which of those competing historical moments proliferate. That too, seems to run on that left/right spectrum. Usually the fine things we do are at the federal level and the ugly things are done in some of the states. Sometimes those ugly state legislators matriculate to the federal legislature and even the presidency. At such times we get Supreme Court justices who believe in the impossible concept of, "constitutional originalism", forgetting that the original ideas of the Constitution were meant for white land-owning males. Thankfully, our Constitution has been allowed to grow during those better times, and we can claim a more perfect union. Not perfect-but better. There is only one perfect thing in all of mankind that is perfect, the perfect asshole. Such people often forget the teachings of the religions they follow, as they zealously proclaim their piety. We may be transitioning out of such an era. We are hopeful all will turn out fine.