How We Can Effect Change to the U.S. Constitution Because of the Donald Sterling Controversy
The Donald Sterling mess..did America get its justice or did Americans lose another tiny slice of their civil rights? It’s ok to reach for a Utopian society where the scales of equality balance at a zero differential. It is better than ok that we all want a kinder,less polarized, more tolerant world for our children to grow up in. It’s ok that we want to put the dark days of racism in the trash, compact it, put it on a shelf, and demonize anyone that embodies those racist thoughts. BUT, the question is at what cost?
One Step forward, two steps back
It seems that we take a step forward and then two steps backwards, like a country dance. We attempt to right a wrong even though the process to collect the evidence was a criminal act. We ignore the process because the moral outrage is worse than the crime. Rarely in life does a private legal transgression of the social contract trump a misdemeanor. Seldom is the court of public opinion dominant to penal law. Illegal wiretap vs. the sanctity of a private conversation and the crime wins.
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
In courts throughout the land, judges rule daily on evidence admissibility. Little tolerance is afforded prosecutors and law enforcement if a piece of evidence is tainted in the slightest, collected without proper search warrant or without probable cause. An illegal collection process or a flawed evidence custody chain is basis for disallowing the evidence as it is now “fruit of the poisonous tree.” Should we allow this type of personal intrusion to effect social change and what is the price? And in this case, why did “the world” wait to hang Donald Sterling after his comments when his actions for decades needed addressing many times before regarding his discrimination practices concerning housing and employment.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Abdul-Jabbar, former Hall of Fame NBA superstar and past employee of Donald Sterling, wrote anop-ed for Time magazine where he expressed outrage at Sterling’s remarks, agreed that he has no place in the NBA as an owner but then started the conversation on the issue of the way the evidence was collected and “leaked.” Kareem drew a parallel to what Sterling’s ex-girlfriend did to the actions of the NSA and their eavesdropping policy exposed by Snowden. Abdul-Jabbar wrote, “Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way?” . I agree with Kareem and America that Sterling is a vile creature and has no place in any business that affords him a position to wield his prejudice, but there is another issue being conveniently ignored. The rights of Americans to have a private conversation regardless of the topic or personal opinion. It’s rare that we see inside the mind of a racist at his own expense and by his own utterances but we must factor in that he thought it was a private conversation, not one that would be taped illegally and leaked to TMZ Sports.
Two wrongs don’t make a right
Donald Sterling is a jealous, easily manipulated man, that in his heart of hearts is a racist. He is banned for life, the NBA commissioner fined him and team ownership will transfer. Now, we have to inspect and interpret the dynamics of the case and look past the outrage and the action of the haters. We have to realize that this scandal has a bigger context in life than an old man’s racist conduct and thoughts. Serious violations of rights is what is at stake here for us all.
Constitutional “gray” areas
- The NSA wiretaps.
- The “Stop and Frisk” police policies.
- The proliferation of video cameras
- The Google Glass.
- Law enforcement and government procurement of emails and texts.
- The searching of smart phones without a warrant,
- Facial recognition software.
This is just a small amount of issues that technology has bred. The forefathers could not have envisioned these advances and could not have addressed them in the Bill of Rights. We need to create a long term standing policy on what citizen’s rights are as far as collection and warehousing of personal data and the means of collection. It’s time for a definitive understanding of the impact of these technologies on the rights of the citizens. No longer is an “interpretative” line item policy enough. We don’t have and cannot afford the time it takes for the Supreme court to weigh each and every argument. Technology is just moving too fast for that time luxury. We need to revise the constitution like a building, total renovated from the ground floor up.
Time for Major Revision to the U.S. Constitution
Isn’t it time that the collective; our President, our representatives in Congress, the Supreme Court of the United States, and its’ citizens, address these issues in the Amendments of the U.S. Constitution? Isn’t it time to bring this great document into the modern age? Time to stop trying to interpret what our founding fathers would do and start agreeing on what we want America to be. Our forefathers couldn’t possibly have imagined the technology available now and what the future holds as well as the ramifications to people’s basic rights. Technology offers many advantages but also presents many challenges to our basic ideas of freedom and protection from government and media intrusion. We have to revise the U.S. Constitution to make a relevant document to our lives now in the present and for our future.
U.S. Constitution…Holy Document?
Our forefathers would have encouraged us to see the Constitution as a guide but not the “end all be all” document it has evolved into. It’s not a Holy document, it was written by brilliant men in a different time with different challenges, but no divine inspiration. To try and take their world and blend it with ours the way we do is fundamentally flawed. Rather than having lawyers present case after case to the Supreme Court arguing about how a particular word in one context changes the entire meaning, let’s empower our leaders to take affirmative action enacting concrete change.
Empowered Action
Using the Constitution as a guide, let’s do a major re-write. We have a ton of smart citizens in this country in academia and other professions. Let’s get their insight and wisdom and trailblaze the future now. Let’s be the generation of Americans that re-purpose the Constitution. Let’s rewrite our collective futures letting our forefathers guide us and model their basic principles with more detail and focus upon OUR immediate and future challenges. Let’s stop the interpretation.
“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
Do we follow Dale Carnegie’s advice and one day find the upside in this Donald Sterling mess if it effects positive change for society. or will we remember this sad event as another tragic day in many, where we lost another slice of our rights and our privacy. History will not be kind to Donald Sterling, that is a guarantee, his legacy is now of a racist. History will also judge us on how we handle this controversy and if we made lemonade from our lemons.
Silver lining
Ben Franklin once said many years prior to the Constitution in a reply to the Pennsylvania Governor in 1755, ” They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Relevant liberties such as open communication, the unabridged freedom of speech and the freedom from search all will be challenges of the Orwellian future and Donald Sterling can be thanked that maybe this will be the scandal that starts that conversation and this dark cloud may have a silver lining.
JibbJabber 