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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Life should not be about a few great men doing grand things but filled with ordinary people opening their hearts to helping others, one action at a time.
Mary Leonardo Patry whose widely circulated post inspired me to write this article, has a quote on her LinkedIn account from Robert F. Kennedy, speaking upon the death of MLK:
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country...”
Many books and leaders, holy and otherwise, have opined that the purpose of life is to seek the truth. To commit to giving up the search for wealth and power in favor of pursuing a higher truth.
The title of this article is from “Hamlet” – one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies – and reverberates in the name of the more recent Spike Lee movie, Do the Right Thing.
There are too many people today doing the wrong thing. Or struggling to do the right thing for the wrong reason.
Feverish focus on the just released Epstein e-mails is just fishing in an ocean of red herrings, ambient noise drowning out more crucial concerns, salaciously looking back when we need to be forging forward.
What’s most important is if you can live with yourself. If you can wake up in the morning with joy in your heart and go to sleep at night with peace in your soul.
Here’s another quote that is relevant. From the second stanza of an Aaron Tippen tune:
“You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything
You've got to be your own man not a puppet on a string
Never compromise what's right and uphold your family name
You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything”
On Friday, Mark Wolf, a senior Massachusetts judge appointed by Ronald Reagan 40 years ago, put the rule of law above loyalty to the current president and resigned his lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Writing in The Atlantic:
“My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.”
The poignancy of a man whose entire life was dedicated to the principle that the law must apply equally to all, no matter how powerful, feeling obliged to walk away from all he has built is both supremely personal and shockingly brave.
Teddy Roosevelt famously stated that “No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.”
Pointing out that “What Nixon did episodically and covertly, knowing it was illegal or improper, Trump now does routinely and overtly,” Wolf proceeded to condemn Trump’s abuse of executive orders, calling them “unconstitutional or otherwise illegal” as well as the president’s calls to impeach sitting judges for challenging his administration’s lawlessness. Which tracks an exponential escalation of threats against sitting jurists.
The judge further targeted this administration’s bulldozing of the courts’ obligations to serve as a check on rampant abuses and corruption by the president and his cronies who continue to flagrantly break laws with impunity and enrich themselves at the expense of the people the law is sworn to protect.
If rules cease to apply to Burn-Down-the-House Trump and his mesmerized clique, as pardons are indiscriminately granted to friends, donors, and political allies alike at the same time as the president vengefully prosecutes critics past and present, then law in these United States has become inverted and perverted, rotting the American experiment from the inside out.
As Patry posted: “for judges who have spent their lives protecting the integrity of justice, that’s not just disheartening, it’s corrosive. It undermines faith in a system built on accountability, not allegiance.”
A core tenet of Wolf’s position is that the Justice Department is supposed to ensure that prosecutors do not seek an indictment unless they have “sufficient admissible evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” a principle that Trump “has utterly ignored.”
Wagging his legal beagle finger at Attorney General Pam Bondi, he called out her Justice Department for the persecution of former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and California Senator Adam Schiff. Even if prosecution ends in acquittal, such infantile acts of retribution “can have devastating consequences for the defendant.”
Wolf’s words in resigning remind us that the Department of Justice and the courts can only function for the people when they are not tied hand and foot by political obstructionism.
When judges aren’t faced with daily pressure to kowtow to the Pope on the Potomac. When even the most principled of purists has to confront intolerable choices between silence and conscience.
But Wolf is not walking away as so many have done in the past ten months and is, in fact, committing to doing “everything in my power to combat today’s existential threat to democracy and the rule of law.
“I resigned in order to speak out, support litigation, and work with other individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the rule of law and American democracy... [and] to advocate for the judges who cannot speak publicly for themselves.”
Concluding with quoting Robert F. Kennedy’s call to courage against apartheid from almost sixty years ago, Wolf wrote:
“I cannot be confident that I will make a difference. I am reminded, however, of what Senator Robert F. Kennedy said in 1966 about ending apartheid in South Africa: ‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.’ Enough of these ripples can become a tidal wave.”
As the writer of the post who inspired these ruminations reiterated:
“May Judge Wolf’s ripple become a wave.”
A wave to wash away the sins of this administration and give America a clean slate on which to rebuild its democracy and its reputation.
But to get there, all of us must become the grains of sand, true to ourselves, that individually may have no power but, together, propelled by that wave, can topple the foundations on which the House of Trump stands.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
