Some entities are so strong that they can only be defeated by themselves. The United States of America seems to me to be one of those. Idealistically and technologically, the United States has dominated for as long as I’ve been alive. Those days are drawing to an end though, through the magic of bureaucratic stupidity.
Rule of law is an important concept in any society that bills itself as free. Unfortunately rule of law, the idea that everyone is equal in the eyes of the judicial system, becomes a joke when the law itself is so farcical as to become disrespected by a large majority of the citizenry.
We have a prime example of such a law in my state of residence, Georgia.
Wendy Whitaker, 29, has been on Georgia’s sex offender list for more than 12 years. Her crime? She performed oral sex on a high school classmate just after turning 17. The boy was just shy of his 16th birthday. Both were sophomores. Whitaker is now suing, claiming that given her crime, her sex offender status is cruel and unusual punishment.
Laws related to sex offenders fail at both the state and federal level in this country. Too many people are arbitrarily given a virtual scarlet letter that severely distorts and detracts from their quality of life forever after. Wendy Whitaker is a felon because as a teenager, she decided to give another teenager a blowjob. This happens thousands of times a day in my state. If the law was being enforced across the board in the same way that it is with Wendy Whitaker, a significant percentage of the population of Georgia would be felons.
When you tell a 29-year-old woman that she cannot live in her home because of a consensual sexual act that occurred when she was 17 – an act that should never have become the business of the state in the first place – you chip away at the rule of law. For each Wendy Whitaker a society creates, there is a ripple effect that weakens the authority of the state. Create enough non-violent felons who have hurt no one and then harass them for the rest of their lives. Rule of law erodes. Authority is undermined by unjust decision making. The fabric of society becomes stressed.
Applied law is force. Force is a blunt instrument that should only be used as a last resort. If we continue to make thousands of bad laws every year and if we continue to ostracize and fetter segments of our population for made up crimes that haven’t actually caused anyone any injury then don’t be surprised when Atlanta burns. Don’t be shocked when the bombs start going off in D.C.
You can only repress so many people for so long before something goes boom. Trust me. We’re working hard to defeat ourselves.