I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. There must be a connection between these seemingly separate streams of thought (other than the fact that they came from the same tired old brain). Could they come together to make a river of useful wisdom? Without knowing for certain the answer to that question, I will begin the journey. You are invited to come along for the ride.
I have a love-hate relationship with American football. I love watching superb athletes perform under intense pressure. I love the fairly rare displays of good sportsmanship, like when a player from one team helps an opponent get back up on his feet after a tackle. I hate the gratuitous violence, like spearing with the helmet or driving hard on a player who is already on the ground. I also hate the individual and group celebrations in the end zone after a score and the taunting of an opponent. By the way, the two handsome football fans in the above photos are my son and grandson, Matt‘s IV and V.
One thing I know for sure. Football speaks volumes about our culture. The most important person on the field is not one of the two quarterbacks or another star player. No, it’s the referee. Why is that? I think I know the answer. In our culture, we worship the rules. Sure, the game can produce dazzling plays, but if an offensive player flinched at the wrong time, far away from the action, the most beautiful play will be deemed a nullity.
Contrast this with soccer, where the main focus is on the flow, rhythm and sheer beauty of the game, and referees can wave off any perceived infraction that did not materially affect the flow of play.
Soccer is not truly an American game, or else every infraction would involve game stoppage and expert analysis, constant timeouts, and video replays with decisions rendered from offices far from the field of play. Retired referees would be hired to help with the television broadcasts. It would all be about the rules. Play fair, don’t cheat, or at least don’t get caught.
The culture in ancient Sparta did not attach shame to violating the law, but only to being caught. This reminds me of driving on our highways, trying to obey speed limits without causing a riot. But I digress. I have noticed that many football players routinely violate the rules, especially offensive and defensive holding. Most of these violations go unnoticed by the officials on the field. But getting caught is where Spartan shame sets in, if only for a few minutes. I am afraid 21st century American culture has become more like Spartan culture.
I have been a lawyer for over fifty two years, and I have observed how complex our system of laws has become. No lawyer can hope to be familiar with every field of law. And we have a hundred times more lawyers than we actually need. So lawyers become indispensable parties to a huge portion of decision making in modern business and family life. Individual liability concerns drive decisions to disapprove actions that would otherwise be of benefit to the public. Any neighborhood dispute can easily be elevated to the police and the courts.
This brings me to this question: are the laws and rules that apply to our conduct of everyday life an end unto themselves or are they instead a means to a greater end? I want to say the latter, and those latter ends include justice, harmony in communities, equal treatment of all persons regardless of their wealth or position in society, fairness in the marketplace, and the capacity of public institutions to accomplish the purposes for which they were formed.
There is another great question: why have we allowed our legal system to decouple or disconnect rights from responsibilities? During the decade following my graduation from law school, the US Supreme Court decided a series of cases that essentially enacted a Constitutional code of criminal procedure. The unifying theme of these decisions was that otherwise reliable evidence would be excluded, and otherwise guilty persons would be freed of responsibility for their crimes, no matter how egregious, simply because police officers failed to follow a prescribed procedure or otherwise violated the rights of an offender.
Instead of disciplining or admonishing the police officer who failed to get a search warrant at two o’clock in the morning before searching a motor vehicle or housing unit, the courts said we will deter bad police actions by putting dangerous persons back on the streets, without taking into account the risks to innocent members of the public. No one voted for this result, nor would they have. But the only way to undo these decisions would be to amend our Constitution or convince the Supreme Court to reverse its prior decisions.
These two hills are much too high to climb. It is almost as if the legal system was used to tear at the very fabric of our society. Here’s an example that should strike home. Courts have effectively taken away the authority of public school teachers to discipline unruly students, have given students constitutionally protected privacy rights in their school lockers, have enabled minor children to sue their own parents or anyone else, and surprise, many of our families are in distress and disfunction and many of our schools are failing to produce graduates who can function productively in society.
Where is this all going? Stay tuned for future editions. Thanks for joining us!
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