Gun Violence and SCOTUS, Butterflies, Humor and a Bit of Politics

On Veterans Day, November 11, take a moment to honor those who have served to protect and defend our country.

Reducing Gun Violence Rests with the Supreme Court

Although retired since 2010, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has advocated repeal of the Second Amendment.  He has called the reasons for its existence “a relic of the 18th century."   But unfortunately, Stevens is no longer on the Court which is now dominated by five conservative Justices.

 

I recently wrote to these conservative Justices (Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh) about the Second Amendment.  Writing to them is preferable to Emails.  Hopefully such correspondence will perhaps reach one of a Justice’s clerks.

These Justices are all fully aware of the facts.  What they might not be aware of is the shift in the feeling of most American citizens toward the regulation of firearms.  Making them aware of that shift is important.  Letters can accomplish that.  The repeated tragedies in which the Court’s 2008 interpretation of the Second Amendment may have played a part may already be weighing heavily on their consciences.  They know what happened in Parkland, in Pittsburgh and in Thousand Oaks this year!   

Here is the text of the letter I sent recently to these five Justices:

Justice _________:

“I am certain that you are aware of the historical basis of the Second Amendment.  One does not have to be a strict interpreter of the Constitution to understand its clear language:

"A well-regulated militia" (this means a volunteer military force operating under a set of rules, and not just a gang of people running around with weapons),"being necessary to the security of a free state," (there were thirteen “free states” at the time comprising the “United States,” which a few years earlier had not been “free” but under British rule), "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" (for the purpose of being available with their arms to serve in those well-regulated militia in those “free states”).

Broader interpretations of the Second Amendment, including those ignoring its first dozen words, are political and should be avoided.

Some of the thirteen original states, remembering British rule, were still wary of the military power of a central government and wanted some counterbalance to that power, should the Federal government ever use it against a state.  That was the reason for the Second Amendment.  (The states which insisted on it were the ones where slavery was practiced. That was their underlying motivation.)”

I encourage you to write your own letter or copy the one I sent.  Emails aren’t the way to go with Supreme Court Justices.  But you can mail it, individually, to the Justices mentioned above at this address:

Supreme Court of the United States
 1 First Street, NE
 Washington, DC 20543

The chance of repeal of the Second Amendment during our lifetimes is highly remote.  Over the years, however, there will be legislation on both the Federal and State level which will accomplish that by providing that certain weapons be restricted or highly regulated and that other measures be taken to control who gets to possess them. 

Supreme Court Building in Washington

Such legislation will be challenged in the courts and the ultimate decision will rest with the Supreme Court.  That’s why letters such as this are important.

Jack Lippman

Laughs

“Seymour, get up!  You have to go to school!  You’ll be late!,” his mother shouted.

“Ma, I don’t wanna go to school,” Seymour answered.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because all the teachers and all the students hate me, that’s why,” he answered.

“Seymour,” the mother declared, "You HAVE to go to school!  You’re the Principal!”

  

When you chuckle (?) at a joke like this, what is it at which you are laughing?  Could it be that you find it amusing that a middle-aged man is still living at home, as much under his mother's care as he was when he were a child?  What's funny about that?  He has problems, and they should be addressed properly, not laughed at.

If "Seymour" were "Shirley," or if the "waker-upper" were his father rather than his mother, would there even be a joke?  I doubt it.  This story is generated by the wellspring of humor based on the relationship between Jewish mothers and their sons, and which has contributed mightily to the income of many Catskill Mountain comedians as well as to that of many psychiatrists.

JL

News from the Butterfly Garden

This has been a bad year for Monarch butterflies.  Scientists have offered several explanations for this most common of butterflies becoming an only occasional visitor to its usual haunts. These reasons include the increase in the use of herbicides and pesticides in agriculture throughout the country which can not only kill Monarchs (in the form of eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises or actual butterflies) but can get rid of the milkweed without which Monarchs cannot survive.  Climate change and deforestation in areas of Mexico to which Monarchs migrate are also suggested as explanations for their decline.

Monarch in caterpillar form. (Tiny orange dots behind it
 are eggs laid by female Monarch butterflies
from which these things hatch)

I put several milkweed plants in the ground some months ago and they must have attracted some Monarchs because numerous Monarch caterpillars were spotted in the garden devouring most of the milkweed plants’ leaves.   But their evolution into butterflies just didn’t occur, and even with the regrowth of leaves on the milkweeds, only one caterpillar has been seen recently (pictured to the right this morning), which at least suggests that there have been Monarch butterflies around.  I just haven’t seen them.  My theory was that the caterpillars were being eaten by the geckos in the garden.  To get rid of them, I liberally scattered garlic cloves and also a few mothballs in the garden.  I also threw some egg shells there.  These are supposed to make the geckos think there are birds around, making them seek other hunting grounds.  The number of geckos has been reduced and I suspect the cause is the garlic.

Meanwhile, I have spotted an occasional Giant Swallowtail hanging around the wild lime tree in my yard.  The books say that is their favorite plant on which to lay eggs.  I haven’t seen any caterpillars on the tree, but the presence of these beautiful gold trimmed butterflies indicate that they must be there, unless the ones I see are just visitors.   If they are, they are welcome to lay their eggs right here.   I’ve also seen a few White Peacock butterflies around, but I doubt if they are breeding in my garden.  I suspect they inhabit the slopes of the canal behind my house.   These three varieties are pictured below.

From top to bottom, Monarch, Giant Swallowtail and White Peacock butterflies

JL

Back to Politics

The Democratic Party will be a majority in the newly elected House of Representatives, all the seats of which were up for election on November 6.   They also captured seven governorships from the Republicans.  On the other hand, in the one-third of the Senate which was being elected, the Republican Party increased their majority by two or three seats over the Democrats.  This increase, while significant, represents voters in only one third of the nation’s states and is not so much an omen for the future as were their losses in the House, which represents the entire country.

Generally, the margin of victory for Democrats came from the votes of women, minority groups and younger people.  Republican victories came from the traditional Republican/Trumpian base, its hard-to-crack core anchored in older white male voters and recent right-wing recruits to the G.O.P.

The Democratic victories did not prevent the loss of Senate seats in North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana and possibly Florida, where the factors discussed below all come into play.  The Democrats did capture a Republican Senate seat in Nevada, limiting their losses to two or three seats in the Upper House.

Let’s look at what prevented the Democrats from achieving a greater gain on Election Day than what they did accomplish in races for seats in the House of Representatives, in governorship races and in State legislatures.  What strength did the G.O.P. have in places like Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota, for example, to repel the Democrats?  I think it is a matter of “image.”

In the eyes of many voters in rural areas and small cities across America, beyond whatever their programs might contain, the Democratic Party is seen as representing the urban elite of the major cities on the east and west coasts, along with the large minority populations found there, along with the social services these groups may require.  

The G.O.P. attempts to cash in on this image by making Nancy Pelosi the poster girl for it.  The history of political bosses and machines in these places, while no longer a factor, also lingers in their image of the Democratic Party.  While these voters, basically from a White Protestant culture, are not specifically racist nor bigoted, they are well aware that the Democratic Party has many Black, Latino, Jewish and at least in big cities, Roman Catholic adherents.  They don’t openly criticize the Democrats for this but it is often buried in the back of their thinking somewhere.  They see the Democrat “cohort” as different from theirs.  They can sense that what might be good for Los Angeles or New York City might not be good for Des Moines, and vote accordingly. 

 

Kansas Governor-Elect Kelly

This “image” problem is all that prevents the Democrats from picking up all the marbles once the old white guys die off.  Better (and more highly paid) analysts than me are probably working on this right now.  One of the things they probably are examining are the details of Democrat Laura Kelly’s victory over Kris Kobach in the Kansas governorship race.  If the Democrats can pull that off in Kansas, they can do it anywhere.

JL

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Jack Lippman