Moral Sovereignty and America's Foreign Policy

Last night I sat down with local friends of mine here the subject of the Terri Schiavo case came up. I found myself in a very difficult situation in my attempts to explain what is happening in my country, how our country's judiciary has come to this conclusion and why Terri Schiavo must die by starvation and dehydration.

A simple and yet painfully legitimate question was asked of me. "Why does your country not just give Terri Schiavo a lethal injection or simply put a bullet in her brain?"

For years the United States has at times worked hard to become a credible and consistent champion of human rights around the globe. No more. As the entire world watches this entire drama unfold right before their eyes and many are absolutely horrified and chilled beyond belief at what they see. A great nation using a corrupted court system to legitimacy their atrocities, the most heinous of human rights abuses.

When a great nation such as ours starts to dehumanize individuals in the way that Terri Schiavo has and is being dehumanized in an organized effort to justify and rationalize the killing off of those members of our society who are sick, disabled, no longer productive, "have worthless lives or lives not worth living" or "wish to die" then we have lost the moral high ground.

When great men stand by and mumble to themselves "...Well the courts have decided" and do nothing as an omnipotent judiciary and corrupted court system misuses the law to legitimize atrocities committed against our fellow man, then we have truly fallen as a people.

Human rights are those we possess by virtue of being human. They are God given rights, natural rights, i.e., rights we possess by nature, not by law. They are not rights granted to us by any government, and so they cannot be taken away by any government, regardless of what laws it may pass and what degree of violence it may employ to enforce its laws.

"The World's Superpower and Champion of Human Rights around the globe is starving and dehydrating a disabled woman to death and underage children who bring her water are being handcuffed and arrested."

What right do we have now to excoriate others? What right do we have to speak out against human rights abuses around the globe?

So what if nations enslave their citizens or put their underage children to work in dangerous factories? At least they don't starve their disabled citizens to death.

If China decides to put a bullet in the brain of all their retarded school children tomorrow, what can we say or do?

Next time we want to whine because Libya or Egypt is on the United Nations human rights council we better learn to bite our lip.

A dark shadow or moral sovereignty has not only fallen on America but now on the entire world. God help us all.

Well, that's really good. Maybe the Southeast Asians should take this case to the United Nations to promulgate a treaty. Our Courts would listen to the United Nations, even if they should defy the Congress and play word games with the Constitution. Don't worry; the Courts have ruled that even unratified treaties still bind the interpretation of the Constitution. Our President's sole influence upon the Court comes through his prominent influence over foreign legal traditions, for the Courts have decreed so.

And the answer to your questions: In the United States, we do not have human rights; our government exists to secure the certain inalienable rights with which our Creator endowed all persons. But a "person" and a "human" are not the same; a "person" is a legal construction, and any Judge can declare a genetic human to be not a person by fiat. Such decrees are irrevocable.

The Courts have used this tactic against Dred Scott (1857), Norma McCorvey's baby (1973), and Terri Schiavo (1998). Yes, we just have a problem with judicial tyrants.

I PERSONALLY RECOMMEND TRIAL BY JURY IN ALL CASES WHEREIN NO ECONOMIC VALUE IS IN CONTROVERSY. We need to extend jury trials, jury nullification, executive clemency, and other rights to suits at common law.

expatguy: (permalink: http://laotze.blogspot.com/2005/03/moral-sovereignty-and-americas-foreign.html)

...When a great nation such as ours starts to dehumanize individuals in the way that Terri Schiavo has and is being dehumanized in an organized effort to justify and rationalize the killing off of those members of our society who are sick, disabled, no longer productive, "have worthless lives or lives not worth living" or "wish to die" then we have lost the moral high ground.
When great men stand by and mumble to themselves "...Well the courts have decided" and do nothing as an omnipotent judiciary and corrupted court system misuses the law to legitimize atrocities committed against our fellow man, then we have truly fallen as a people.
Human rights are those we possess by virtue of being human. They are God given rights, natural rights, i.e., rights we possess by nature, not by law. They are not rights granted to us by any government, and so they cannot be taken away by any government, regardless of what laws it may pass and what degree of violence it may employ to enforce its laws.
.....What right do we have now to excoriate others? What right do we have to speak out against human rights abuses around the globe?
....If China decides to put a bullet in the brain of all their retarded school children tomorrow, what can we say or do?

Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !

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I don't think this case shows flaws in our national character. Our president and the governor of Florida have not espoused this killing; our Congress has not espoused this killing; a large percentage of Florida's legislature are against it.

It is disappointing that a probate judge in Florida can sentence a woman to death by starvation, and in the process of executing her ignore Congressional subpoena and can command the Pinellas County Sheriff to defy the executive branch of Florida.

Those extraordinary actions themselves were not the rule of law: they were rule by judge. But those actions had their origin in a simple problem: Florida has a law on the books that is unconstitutional. It allows for the state of Florida to deprive citizens of life without due process.

I have heard people comment that this is somehow a states rights case, as if states somehow have a right to kill their citizens at their own pleasure. The states do not have such a right. Citizens are guaranteed by the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution due process when they are deprived of life. Florida's law abridges that by providing an expedited process to terminate life.

However bad this law is, it takes an over-the-top and out-of-control judge to take it to this point. The safeguards, extraordinary as they were in some cases, were invoked because of an extraordinary danger: a probate judge in a guardianship case who decided to use this power to improperly terminate a life. When the injustice of this was pointed out by the parents of the individual, this judge stubbornly refused to listen to reason; the review process for his decision was not designed as one to be a review of a capital case; the only safeguards left were legislative and executive intervention, because the judicial mechanisms that were being invoked were the wrong ones to handle a capital case.

While this is lamentable, and does not show our best face, it is not a condemnation of our government at large, or our leaders at large. It may show weaknesses in our distribution of power; it may show how a law designed for one reason had a provision that give it an entirely different complexion in the hands of a bad actor; it may show that our wheels of justice sometimes grind too slowly to save individuals, but I don't believe that it shows that our country has somehow taken on a new and evil face.

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