With liberty and justice for all

How many times have we said those words with pride and confidence, without reflecting that we are setting ourselves the unending task of conflict resolution: one person’s liberty vs justice for another person. By including “for all” in the pledge, we have committed ourselves to building institutions to define and adjust the boundaries between liberty and justice. Now our simultaneous pandemic and political crises have stressed those institutions so far that many of us fear their collapse.

In response to the Supreme Court’s 9-0 refusal to hear the Texas lawsuit to invalidate the votes of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, the Republican Party in Texas suggested the best remedy for an intolerable situation might be for the “red” states to secede from the “blue” states. Because our Congresswoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, signed her name in support of this Texas effort to disenfranchise the voters of those four states, I’m wondering if she now supports secession. Or would she be willing to renew her pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and its embattled institutions, with liberty and justice for all?

William Siems

Spokane