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The True Citizen, Wednesday, April 27, 2022 — Page 5
Michael N. Searles
THE ABANDONMENT OF REASON—PART II
Reason takes on many faces
and some of them are ugly. We
like to believe that our actions
are governed by principle and
good judgment. Voting in the
U.S. Senate is an example of
the disconnect between reason
and politics.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jack-
son received bipartisan sup
port from the U.S. Senate for
both a District Judge seat and
an Appellate Judgeship. On
February 25, 2022, President
Joe Biden nominated Jackson
to be an associate justice of the
Supreme Court of the United
States, filling the vacancy creat
ed by Justice Stephen Breyer's
retirement. Judge Brown Jack-
son graduated from Harvard
University and Harvard Law
School with honors. She served
as an editor of the Harvard Law
Review. She had a clerkship
on each level of the federal
judiciary. She was vice chair
of the United States Sentenc
ing Commission and served as
a public defender.
Her qualifications exceeded
several of the currently serv
ing Justices of the Supreme
Court. Also it is noteworthy
that the confirmation of Ket
anji Brown Jackson made her
the first black women to serve
on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge Brown Jackson received
the unanimous well-qualified
endorsement of the American
Bar Association as well as the
support of the three major law
enforcement organizations.
A number of conservative
Republican Senators pub
licly stated that Judge Brown
Jackson was qualified for the
office she sought, but most of
those same Senators publicly
stated they would not vote in
favor of her confirmation. In
2005, Conservative Appeals
Judge John Roberts was con
firmed as Chief Justice of the
U.S. Supreme Court with a
78-22 vote. All of the Senate
Republicans and half of the
Democrats voted for Roberts.
While there were nine potential
Republican swing voters in the
Senate, Judge Brown Jackson
was fortunate to receive three
of them.
This is a prime example of
what is wrong with our politics
and governance. There were
just a few Republicans willing
to confirm one of the more
qualified individuals ever nom
inated to the Supreme Court for
fear of angering their party or
their constituents. How have
we come to a time that any vote
the opposition party introduces
or favors makes one a disloyal
party member?
A house divided against
itself cannot stand has biblical
origins, but it was Abraham
Lincoln who seared the phrase
into our national conscious
ness. We currently live in a
divided political house where
little can be accomplished. The
vast majority of Americans
support universal background
checks, yet Republicans in
Congress refuse to support the
legislation. Often the legisla
tion that is passed does not
have the endorsement of the
American people. During the
presidency of Donald J. Trump,
the Republican-controlled Con
gress passed a tax-cut bill that
added an estimated $2 trillion
to the national debt over the
next decade. While the Repub
lican Congress fully endorsed
the legislation, only about 30
percent of Americans did so.
The American people however
did support raising the mini
mum wage, background checks
for gun sales, and action on
climate. Yet Republicans turn
a blind eye to these and other
legislative actions supported by
a large majority of Americans.
Compromise has become a
four-letter word in the politi
cal lexicon. Most Americans,
however, want government
to work and want the two
political parties
to compromise
and get things SEARLES,
done. American 8
Ronda Rich
THE RECLINER
To the people of the rural
South - especially in the days
of my childhood - a sign of
hard-working success meant
the ability to eventually buy a
rec liner.
If you were able to afford a
Laz-Z-Boy you were walking
in high cotton.
In my childhood home, we
had one: for Daddy. Mama
preferred a club chair and a pa
thetic-looking footstool made
from a dirty beige vinyl that
set down on ugly welded iron.
A shelf under the cushion could
hold magazines but Mama was
too tidy for that kind of clutter.
She was in the late winter of
her life before she, too, bought
a Laz-Z-Boy.
Of course, when I started
housekeeping (as they used to
call it when someone set up
their first home), I dreamed of
a Laz-Z-Boy. Eventually, I was
able to put one on layaway and
paid for six months. I was so
proud the day that the delivery
guys set it in my living room.
After that, over ensuing
years, I bought two others (and
was blessed enough to give the
first one to someone who was
thrilled). Both were spontane
ous purchases. I was shopping
with Mama in a furniture store
in North Carolina when I sat
down in the beige velvet one
and said almost immediately,
“When can you deliver?”
One day, I was helping my
friend, Pinky, with her choice
of a new sofa. While she talked
to the salesman, I sat down in
a chair and half-leather rec liner
(not a Laz-Z-Boy). I bought it
on the spot. Both chairs fol
lowed me to the home that I
built where Tink and I now live.
He was raised in an affluent
section of Connecticut then
moved to spend 30 years in
Los Angeles. (He would’ve
laughed heartily had anyone
suggested that his home might
one day be in the kudzu-stran-
gled rural South.)
After a couple of years of
marriage - when he was brave
enough - he chuckled one day
and remarked, “I never saw
a recliner in a home until I
moved here.”
There is not a member of our
family who does not own at
least two recliners. I remember
how my mountain Grandmoth
ers both sat at the end of an
old couch, ankles folded and
knitted. They didn’t even have
a footstool. This is a step-up for
my families.
I was incredulous. “No one
you knew in New England or
California had a recliner?” I
said it in a tone of indictment
against their good taste. I knew
certainly that they had the
money and none of them prob
ably ever heard of lay-a-way.
He shook his head. “We had
chairs with ottomans.”
The things you learn.
Recently, I replaced the
North Carolina-purchased
recliner in our master suite. I
had loved it for over 20 years
and written many stories while
scootched down in its welcom
ing comfort. To replace it, I
recovered a wonderful swivel
chair that had belonged to my
beloved friends, Ed and Randy
Parks.
“Throw that recliner away,”
Tink said.
I gasped. “Never. First, it’s
a great chair. Second, I’m
Scotch-Irish. I won’t throw
away something that still has
good use.”
The newly revamped swivel
chair arrived. “The recliner
will go to the barn,” I said.
Tink, quietly, asked, “Could
I have it for my office?”
I whirled around. “THIS
chair. You want THIS chair?”
He nodded.
“Please. Just new
fabric.”
Tink had dragged
SEE
RICH,
8
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