High Noon for Justice and the Rule of Law

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorials/143

High Noon for Justice and the Rule of Law
Mon, 06/25/2007
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

It's the iconic American Western of one man taking a stand for justice and the rule of law. It's his wedding day to a beautiful, pacifist younger bride (Grace Kelly) -- and his last day as marshal in a frontier town. Gary Cooper (the laconic, lanky marshal) could leave right then to start a family, and set up a new comfortable life as a store owner.

Some interpret "High Noon" (nominated for seven Academy Awards) as a 1952 allegory of principled defiance against the era of McCarthyism, which foreshadowed the courage of Edward R. Murrow in being a lone man with the bravery to challenge and bring down the thuggish, immoral senator from Wisconsin.

"High Noon" -- Sometimes You Can't Run Away from Upholding Justice

Murrow's historical March 9, 1954 broadcast began the unraveling of the reign of uncorroborated witch-hunting, anti-Communist fear (and a watershed moment for broadcast journalism in America): "Our working thesis tonight is this question: If this fight against Communism is made a fight against America’s two great political parties, the American people know that one of those parties will be destroyed and the Republic cannot endure very long as a one party system. We applaud that statement and we think Senator McCarthy ought to. He said it, seventeen months ago in Milwaukee."

It was a brilliant maneuver to hoist the drunken master of intimidation by his own petard. Murrow, like Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) in "High Noon," was taking on someone who had subdued a nation (as the Miller gang did in "High Noon's" Hadleyville) with the assertion of raw power not subject to the restraint of truth, due process, justice, or the law.

Murrow closed his opening salvo against McCarthy with this statement: "The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.'"

In that sense, Murrow was also speaking of the residents of the frontier town of Hadleyville in "High Noon." Because on the day of Marshal Kane's (Cooper) wedding and retirement, four killers were returning to avenge the conviction and imprisonment of their leader, just released, who had terrorized the town some years earlier until Kane had arrested and convicted the gang's leader for murder.

Kane wasn't looking for trouble, but when Hadleyville was again faced with the violation of the rule of law, Kane couldn't flee, despite his young bride's desire to avoid a confrontation.

There are some situations, Kane reasoned, when lawlessness shoves itself in your face -- and you have to confront it head on, not run away cowering.

The people of Hadleyville, for one reason or another relating to cowardice and profiteering from the past crime sprees of the outlaws, refuse to assist Kane in battling the criminals, as their leader rides into town on the late morning train.

Kane is left to himself to confront them -- and with the unexpected assistance of his young Quaker wife, survives the "High Noon" shootout.

The rule of law prevails.

Such is, if we stretch this analogy, the situation in Washington.

There is no need anymore to investigate the Bush Adminsitration. Their chronic defiance of the rule of law -- even the legal requirements that they themselves have set up -- their defiance of the Constitution, their failure to implement laws passed by Congress, their perjury, their contempt for justice, their effort to subvert the voting system in the United States, their prosecution of a war based on lies -- these and so many more reasons compel the impeachment of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and Alberto Gonzales.

The Democrats in Congress may not have the votes to prevail. (The Republicans will have to decide whether they stand up for America or stand with a cabal of crooks.) But, in their lack of effective action, the Democrats are condoning the violation of our nation's most basic governmental glue: the Constitution and the rule of law.

Gary Cooper (Marshal Kane) wasn't looking for a confrontation on the day of his marriage and retirement; it came to him -- and he knew what he had to do.

What sort of standard are we setting for any American if we allow this administration to continue to so brazenly defy laws and offer us nonsense as an excuse for their illegal behavior? What do we tell defendants? What do we tell our children? That ridiculous and absurd excuses for criminal behavior will be acceptable, and will allow the perpetrators to go free?

Because that is what Congress is permitting the Bush Administration to get away with. The final descent into some sort of absurdist pit of law-breaking and bold defiance of the Constitution -- not to mention the threat to our national security -- is Dick Cheney's claim that he does not have to abide by national security guidelines for handling confidential documents because he is not a member of the Executive Branch. When you have attained this level of unaccountable tragic farce, the American system of reasoned government has already become unglued.

Like the residents of Hadleyville, Congress can continue to retreat in endless babble from confronting the lawlessness that has landed on their and our doorsteps. But they do so at grave risk to the foundations of our democracy.

Simply put, unless we have a Marshal Kane to come to our rescue, or unless the Democratic leaders of Congress realize that although they didn't ask for criminal behavior in the Executive Branch to fall down upon them like a thunderstorm, it has -- and they have no choice but to face up to their Constitutional obligations to pursue the removal from office of those who continue to openly, defiantly, and mockingly break the law. Unless such leadership emerges, the fabric of our democracy will unravel.

To avoid such a stand is to cede our country to those individuals who make a mockery of its legal system and Constitutional foundation.

It is to tell present and future generations that the rule of law can be defied with impunity.

This is not a question of Capitol Hill vote counting; it is a question of whether we are going to continue to collectively accept that our legal system holds people accountable for their behavior.

If not, let's stop pretending that we are a nation of laws, based on the precepts of a Constitution.

The Democrats are not responsible for the actions of this rogue, criminal executive branch; but they are responsible for meeting it head on at "High Noon."