I am surrounded by so much beauty that I sometimes forget. I take it for granted. And then, walking the paths that hug the lake, I suddenly see again. I stop because I am overwhelmed by the enormity of it all, just as I was the very first time I walked these paths. “Look where we live!” I say.
“I know,” she replies.
Our loop takes us along the lake, through the marina and around the point to the channel, the jetty and red lighthouse. The jetty serves as a stalwart guardian at the mouth of the channel. When the lake is raging it absorbs the force of the waves. On any day it keeps silt from collecting and clogging the channel. On calm days it is an excellent spot for the seagulls to gather and confab. When the salmon are running the fishermen in their small boats gather at the mouth of the channel and take advantage of the jetty’s protection.
Kerri and I are a jetty for each other.
I’ve decided that everyone needs a jetty.
It’s one of the things we take for granted about our democracy – about the idea that is a democracy. It is meant to be a government made up of regular people who serve their neighbors. People protecting people from exploitation and persecution, striving for “a more perfect union”. At least that is the idea. Of, by and for the people. In a democracy, the law is the jetty.
I suppose autocracies are a jetty too, but serve a purpose that is the opposite of a democracy. It establishes a barrier that protects the privileged few from the majority who are exploited for private gain. In an autocracy, brute force is the jetty. ICE. The SS.
So, I must amend my thought: everyone needs a jetty and everyone needs to be a jetty for others.
I recently heard an interview with Maria Ressa, a Noble Peace Prize laureate. She said something that reminds me of the democracy-jetty that we’ve lost and need to rebuild: facts make truth and truth makes justice. Without equal application of the law, law that serves facts that illuminate truth, there is no justice. Where there is no justice there is no liberty.
I have been surrounded all my life by liberty and I have taken it for granted. Rights and freedoms. The sitting president just announced that the courts have no power over him, that he need not follow the law. The protective jetty has been breached and I am overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.
Our vote in a few short weeks will not restore the jetty but will serve to slow its dismantling. It will take some time to rebuild our stalwart guardian jetty. That process will first necessitate a grounding in fact so we might be able to restore shared truth which will revivify the respect for the law.
I look forward to the day* – I hope for the day – that we can look at each other, recognize our hard-earned good fortune, the beauty of our democracy, a nation of equal justice under the law, honestly striving for a more perfect union, and once again say to each other, “Look at where we live!”
*(restoration begins now with your vote. Vote. Help your neighbors to vote)
read Kerri’s blogpost about THE JETTY
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Filed under: Edges, Flawed Wednesday, Identity, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, autocracy, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, equality, government, justice, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, law, story, studio melange, the melange, truth |
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