class clowns, valedictorians, or wizards of oz
Abdicate: To relinquish (power or responsibility) formally.
Many moons ago, I was sitting in front of my last elementary school teacher, sixth grade. It was the end of the school year, and she’d kept me after class. Now, living on base, I always walked to and from school, so keeping me after to question my lack of understanding was a normal exercise for her. And, during the school year, Mom always knew if I wasn’t home, I was there. Trust me, her spaghetti bowl in the refrigerator always beckoned my return; a cold spaghetti sandwich after the pain of learning was done. Although, this day, the teacher’s desire was to ascertain if I should move on to junior high or sit another year in elementary. She was in a quandary because if I was held back, she’d be stuck with me again. Now, her best bet, Dad would get orders for a transfer, otherwise known as PCS (permanent change of station), and her dilemma, being me, gone forever.
Sitting there, a little antsy on my part, as that sandwich was calling, the school day was over, I was ready to get gone. So, I watched her face working hard to pull together a question she felt I could understand. After a couple minutes, she popped it: Do you just act daffy? Her veiled attempt to soften the blow of the question, her word choice poor, as stupid would have been more apt and direct, I sat there confused. I pondered for a moment with my usual blank stare then responded: No mam, but when I get to watch Saturday cartoons, I enjoy watching Daffy Duck. I could literally she her surrender and off to seventh grade I went. Only three months into that exercise, Dad received the teacher’s coveted orders and off the family went. And while Dad continued growing in his career, the balance of my school career remained disheveled; teachers always ugging in my presence. So, before finishing high school, I knew I wasn’t college material, enlisting instead in the Navy’s delayed enlistment program when I turned seventeen, qualifying for the nuclear program. A couple months later I graduated class bottom and awaited bootcamp. So, imagine me, programming nukes!
Which brings me to the present, including my desire to convey the wisdom of yet again another problem I see being foisted on WE THE PEOPLE. Only, like most other dilemmas this nation faces, if one would only take off their party blinders, they’d see it’s really just vote buying. A promise to give if one gets, whether right, wrong, or deceptive. A magic elixir of falsity to take the power from and redistribute it to. Only, once achieved, one can only wonder what will happen to the country then. And the astounding part of the deception taking place is the ability to get a plethora of citizens buying in, which tells me I probably wasn’t the dumbest one in class after all.
So, when the recent ruling by the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s college student debt relief and legislators went nuts, calling for term limits, court packing, and impeachment, I was perplexed. Does anybody even read the Constitution anymore? Because, when President Biden proclaimed: “I believe the court's decision was a mistake, it was wrong,” I questioned the absurdity. Yes, there’s a tremendous amount of ongoing twisting of truth, and the Constitution, on the receiving end is becoming obtuse, but. It also makes me wonder if, like me, people really are this gullible, stupid, or just plain ignorant? Or inversely, does anybody give a tinker’s damn as the nation crumbles to the ground? Now, there is a point here to point out, but I’m not sure how to cohesively structure the convoluted as I believe all three branches via party fiat have intentionally twisted the Constitution to pervert, but here goes.
When the words constitutional or unconstitutional become bantered to the point of insignificance, what do they actually mean? Especially when nothing ever changes. Plus, with all that has taken place over the years, do the words even matter anymore? Then, is the Supreme Court even supposed to uphold interpretation of law emanating from Congress based on the tenets of the Constitution, or just allow the two branches free will, dependent on the apostasy taking place? And when the judicial finally calls out or strikes down something unconstitutional, are they then legislating from the bench or just letting Congress know whether they colored inside or outside the lines. And I still want someone to show me where in the Constitution the executive, much less a department of, has power to write law, thus making themselves kings! What should have been simple, elementary school lessons, right.
Except, muddying the water and important to the nation’s survival, are the three branches ruling from a standpoint of party or country? Conversely, during the process of creating law, there are legislators who only vote present when voting on a bill. And once their term expires, they are then voted back into the position by the very people they FAILED to protect and uphold constitutionally. An astounding abdication of the people’s responsibility! Especially when the Framer’s in structuring the Constitution placed constraints; two, four, and six years, allowing said citizens to replace those unworthy within a reasonable timeframe. Yet, there are legislators who’ve spent a lifetime destroying the country, voted in repeatedly by those responsible. Although, I do believe if people do not remove these damned stupid party blinders, we’re in trouble. Hell, the country may already be at a point of no return. But my point being un or constitutional and what do the two words mean in regard to the desire of government to force taxpayers to pay off another’s other than their own school debt.
Well, if I’m understanding things clearly, the current action of ability to write the checks to pay off debt are being proposed through the Department of Education, based on the Heroes Act of 2003, or the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, or the Higher Education Act of 1965. One of those three gives the Department the ability to do so or allows the Executive to pull from and give to. Also proposing by a nefarious design of intent, the intentional stacking of similar multitudinous laws on the books creating a redundancy of overlap even the most astute individual cannot unravel. Except:
Constitution: Article I/Section 1/first clause - All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
In other words, ALL legislation able to place constraints or provide relief on WE THE PEOPLE must emanate from Congress. Plus, any Law or Act having been created, if it abdicates power from Congress and gives said power to another entity becomes unconstitutional on its face if I’m to believe the Constitution’s wording. Meaning the Department of Education constitutionally has no power and should be considered a department of suggestion for education, thus allowing Congress to write law based on the will of the people within the parameters of the Constitution, not those elected to serve, or those placed in a permanent state of government employ. Imagine all the other “departments” affected by this thought train. Additionally, the education department itself not being unconstitutional, but what it is constitutionally allowed to do, being not much. Thus, placing a constraint or relief on the people not in its purview. Coloring inside the lines of the Constitution.
Then, the ability to take from and give to another regarding taxpayer money. While Congress is divided into two chambers: a Senate and a House of Representatives, the ability to place a financial burden on citizens, the responsibility clearly defined in the Constitution: Article I/Section 7/first clause - All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. The house being the people’s representatives. This two-year position allows the people the ability to rid themselves of the bad ones. But sadly, there is also the ability for Congress to borrow money which applies to both chambers. A clause for relief placed in the Constitution from the debt incurred over the Revolution and how to pay it off. But now what’s become a vicious cycle of uncontrolled mounting debt. Also, in that verbiage, if one reads, the Executive or the Secretary of Education does NOT have the ability to dole out money, nor apply debt to the citizenry.
So, as the vitriol, spending, and deception continues to despoil the country, ask yourself which branch got it right in paying off another’s student loan? If the Constitution has any relevance, the judicial did. And now, the Executive, attempting to left flank the outcome in the hopes voters will ultimately vote one way while the nation crumbles altogether, willfully continues to violate truth; the government being involved in something it should have never been involved in. And I question: If this were to pass, where does it end? I have always claimed the government was meant to be fed, not feed. While as citizens, we do not need to continue abdicating our responsibility in preserving the nation for our posterity to come.
In closing, loans are an arena best left to lenders and those willing to take the risk, government needing to stay out of picking winners and losers. The money is not theirs to begin with but belongs to the people. So, if needed, put the choice in their hands, understanding buyer beware, as all three branches to date have failed the people. Additionally, this is an issue much larger than student debt. And students, those who signed for the money, need to accept that the fiasco of their money woes falls directly on their shoulders, not the taxpayers, no matter the excuses given as to why this exercise is being brought forward. So, amongst many reasons presented, if one argument becomes they did not understand the nuances of the loan, then how is it a four-year old today can decide their gender.
Conversely, the Constitution, I believe, although ambiguous in certain areas, is even clearer regarding the giving of money. For brevity here, another day. And while the Supreme Court has failed on many fronts, party being the elixir of outcomes, it needs to oversee the other two branches with its blinders removed. But it also wasn’t designed to wait for issues to be brought. Being the weakest of the three, with no powers given, thus not able to legislate from the bench, it was instituted to protect the people, requiring the Executive to protect it. Both branches combined (executive/judicial), the design overall to protect the Constitution. While a vicious cycle of unending deception ensues, citizens are responsible for the overall: WE THE PEOPLE, understanding abdication of responsibility is a finality to future destruction. And legislators (Congress) need to govern the overall inside the bounds of their responsibility, knowing full well: No government any more than an individual will long be respected, without truly being respectable, nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability (Federalist 63). While my teachers, sans one throughout my entire school career, believed I was the dumbest in class, with what I see taking place, and the people following in-trail, I believe today, possibly would have made me class valedictorian.