Someone to count on to do the right thing

A firestorm is already brewing over President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

Many are fearful of her ideologies, especially as they pertain to pro-choice issues and homosexual rights.

I don't think we need to be overly concerned about her influence, or that any of the other justices on the Supreme Court bench.

Apparently, their decisions, once made, become moot.

At least that was the case this week when vandals cut the bolts that held the Mojave Desert cross in place and removed it.

Just last month, the Supreme Court rendered its decision on the cross, put in place in 1934 on Sunrise Rock in the Mojave National Preserve by Veterans of Foreign Wars as a memorial to those who died in World War I.

According to an Associated Press story, the controversy began when a retired National Park Service employee, Frank Buono, filed a lawsuit in 2001, complaining about the cross on public land. In 2003, Congress stepped in and transferred the land where the cross stood to private hands to address the federal court ruling that sided with Buono.

The case ended up before the Supreme Court when the lower courts ruled that the land transfer was an unacceptable end run around the constitutional problem.

By a 5-4 vote, the court refused to order the removal of the cross.

Nevertheless, on Monday morning the cross was gone.

One of the great things about the United States is that if you have a grievance, there are legal ways to address that grievance. We are, after all, a nation of laws, and a nation of laws by deliberate design of the founding fathers.

I have written before about the frailty of our form of government, held as it is in the hands of each citizen. The founding fathers knowingly proposed and executed a system of governance that is wholly dependent on the citizenry's ability to self-govern. Abraham Lincoln reiterated their view in his Gettysburg Address, where in closing he stated, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Once again, we are perilously close to losing it all. And we've no one but ourselves to blame.

A chance conversation, another in the long-running "sidewalk psychology" sessions that used to occur around the water cooler but have been relegated to the great outdoors by the anti-smoking powers that be, uncovered the problem.

The conversation focused on the oil spill in the Gulf, a disaster of epic proportions, that looks like it may be months in the making and will certainly be years in the cleaning up.

Apparently, there is a technology available for deep sea drilling that may have prevented the current environmental catastrophe -- however, in 2003 U.S. regulators decided remote-control safeguards needed more study and a report commissioned by the Minerals Management Service concluded that such remote control "acoustic systems are not recommended because they they tend to be very costly."

A co-worker was astonished. "So, it's all about the money!" he exclaimed. Yeah, pretty much, I said. Never mind that drilling for oil remains a messy, risky business under the best of conditions, surely nothing will go wrong drilling in 5,000 feet of sea water. Putting every possible safeguard available in place would have been, at the very least, prudent, regardless of cost. Furthermore, putting every possible safeguard in place would have been, quite simply, the right thing to do, regardless of cost.

Doing the right thing. We're happy to, as long as it doesn't cost too much. Too much money, too much time, or involve too much humility, selflessness or sacrifice. That has become the mantra of the masses, or so it seems.

The other side of the coin is defining what is right and conversely, what is wrong, then doing the one and avoiding the other. Another area of contention in our culture. The schism widens by the day.

As we returned to our workstations, my co-worker said, "If only there were one man who we could count on to always do the right thing."

I assured him that there is and that he knows his name.

And perhaps, when we get right down to it, that's the underlying motive behind not only the original lawsuit against a simple memorial cross in remote corner of an American desert but the vandals who removed it over the weekend.

It's the cross and what and who it represents. Jesus Christ. Crucified. To atone for sins we aren't even willing to admit we've committed, let alone turn from in repentance.

There's just something about that name. There's just something about that cross.

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life." 2 Corinthians 2:15, 16 (NIV)