BY SHARON MARTIN
We are a country of laws. The past few weeks, friends and relatives have been telling me this when I point out that separating children from their parents is a human rights violation. I can only assume that at least some of these law-abiding citizens are pot smokers or speedy drivers, but we’re not talking irony here. We’re talking justice.
Laws are made to serve the people, not people to serve the laws. What good is law and order if the laws are unjust?
Your friends spouting conservative talking points about law and order are the same ones who claim kinship with the patriots in fake Indian costumes who tossed tea into Boston Harbor. They forget that the original patriots were rebels, protesting injustice.
I’m not sure I would have thrown tea into the harbor. Seems a boycott would have worked. Besides, I have a natural aversion to waste and to white people deflecting blame onto brown people.
I also have an aversion to unjust laws.
If my child had seizures that could be stopped with illegal THC, you can bet your buttons that I’d ignore an illogical drug law and treat my child. A child’s life should trump the law.
Laws can be manipulated to make a point.
By choosing to charge parents who cross the border illegally, the president’s henchmen set up a situation that allowed them to separate children from their parents. They could just as easily make it simple for families to ask for asylum.
Law and order people seem to have no problem ignoring laws they don’t like.
Remember when Gov. Mary Fallin refused to accept the law that expanded Medicaid in this state? How many people are still dying too soon because they don’t have health insurance?
Remember when we, the people of Oklahoma, overwhelmingly passed a state question that would restructure sentencing in Oklahoma? The law and order folk got busy on legislation to subvert the will of the people. How many citizens are still in prison on nonviolent offenses when they, their families, and the state would be better served by commonsense reforms?
Hitler and his party were able to commit atrocities because the people accepted unjust laws. Bless the folk who broke the law and hid or helped to escape those deemed undesirable by the Nazis.
America is a country of laws. We are also a country of folk who like to call themselves patriots. Real patriots take to the streets and the harbors. Real patriots understand sanctuary and stand up to a nationalist administration. Real patriots refuse to follow unjust laws.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. Her latest book, Not A Prodigal, is available through Barnes and Noble. Her recent children’s book, Froggy Bottom Blues, can be purchased in hardcover or paperback from Doodle and Peck Publishing and in paperback from Amazon.
