People grow cynical with the ordered
process of government when, over the course of years, they find repeatedly that
the weightier issues of life and family, and of hopes for building a future
that is not dominated by fear, are tossed back and forth between those charged
with the responsibility of promoting the “general Welfare”. The spectacle of
elected officials from every conceivable political angle running to microphones
to take political advantage when once again the ball is dropped on a weighty
issue only heightens the impression that it is all a great game.
Yes, we were disappointed that the
Supreme Court ruling last week left millions of young people exposed to the
dangers of being uprooted and tossed to countries of which they have no real
memory. But it was the latest in long series of disappointments that have
resulted from a game being played by public servants like a chess-match moving
at iceberg speed-- all the while cynically raising hopes among the immigrant
community that this time something will be done to make law a better instrument
for the protection of human life and its inherent dignity.
Going back to the times of the
previous administration, and through to the current one, immigration reforms
have been formulated by presidents and debated in Congress. Strategies of delay and
promises that "this time we will make it happen", followed by
"its close but looks like no agreement will pass this year", and then the inevitable "we will deal
with this after the next election", have all contributed to the national
embarrassment that we are currently seeing. Meanwhile, deportations continue
and increase, families are separated, and children grow up without the benefit
of a secure family life. The Court decision dashed the hopes of many, but its deadlock
decision also stands as a marble-etched memorial to the failures in the other
two branches of government.
Our system of government is a
well-thought out equilibrium of limits and powers. In principle, the judiciary
interprets the law. And in principle the legislature and the executive write
and execute the law. But our law-making too often loses its mooring in the
human reality, and the safeguarding of human goods is no longer the soul of the
laws' devising. It is little more, now, than the agreed upon fiats of competing
powers anxious to position themselves for the endless cycle of upcoming
elections. Perhaps the players have been at this game so long, they do not
realize it is a game.
The game is played, elections happen,
and the radical incongruities between life and law go on. For a Catholic,
especially, the inconsistency of the law is tragic. Neither party seems able to
connect what should be obvious: human life and human lives deserve to be
respected and protected in law. Immigration is a pro-life issue. But like the
horror of selling the body parts of unborn babies only bites at the political
conscience for a little while, so the slow killing of young people's hopes for
a decent life only moves the powerful to shake their heads and think about how
this may or may not affect the next election. As in 1 Kings 3: 16-28, our
system seems more like the two women fighting over the baby, only there is no
Solomon here, and both fighters seem quite willing to let the child be cut in
two.
Yes, we have a fine form of government
but even its fineness cannot compensate for human failure. Our system is never
more open to ridicule than when strident interests control the levers behind a
wizard's curtain. Perhaps that is a harsh description, and surely it does not
do justice to the many conscientious public servants of both parties in both
the executive and legislative branches. But let these servants be aware that
the cynicism of which I speak is rampant, and many ordinary folks with no real
power or influence often describe the operations of government in harsher
terms. And by these perceptions commented and multiplied in cities and in small
local communities, generations of young people are losing heart and losing hope
in the possibility of a governance that honestly seeks to make laws by the
light of justice. If even half of what we like to think of ourselves as a noble
nation is true, rightly have the children of immigrants who live among us hoped
for something better. Sadly, many have lost that hope: “It was just a story
they told us as kids”, they say. “Maybe it never really was possible”.
The republic endures as long as the
conviction remains that justice is both an ideal and a challenge for succeeding
generations. It is distinguished from the law, and the law is its servant; it
endures as long as we have a confidence that a reasonable though painstaking effort
to “establish Justice” can in fact move forward. If the spectacle of
game-playing continues, slowly but inexorably people give up on the notion that
justice is about protecting the goods of human life, and that law is somehow
related to that pursuit. We are sowing seeds of capriciousness and cynicism
among the young, and we will one day wonder, if we do not already, how it is that
they became adults without confidence in our own nobler ideals.
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