We Don't Need More Laws; the Heart of Man Must Change / by kevin murray

Since its independence from Great Britain, and the institution of its ratified Constitution that applied to all the States of the union, America has become a nation of laws.  We have laws that cover what would appear to be every conceivable thing, to wit, we have local laws, State laws, Federal laws, consumer laws, environment laws, tax laws, usage laws, and so forth, so that this is truly a nation of many laws.  We have so many laws in America, laws that contradict or even override another law, and laws that are outdated, senseless, or aren't even good law to begin with, that there is not a single person or a single entity within America that knows, understands, and can comprehend all of our laws.

 

But be that as it may, each year, each month, each day, the judicial system creates even more laws, for a lot of reasons, both good and bad, as if the mere creation of a given new law, will somehow correct, alleviate, or fix some perceived wrong without any unintended consequences of such a law.  It would be one thing, if the fundamental foundation of America was inherently flawed, but in fact, America's Constitution is a legal document, the Supreme law of the land, that is exceedingly well written and thought out.  This means, for the most part, what this country doesn't really need is more laws, what it truly needs to do instead is to take to heart the philosophy that we ought to treat our neighbor as our self, and also that our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, come from our Creator, that we should also indeed honor as well as love.

 

The Constitution as it stands today has all the principles that we really need, in order to live a fair and quality life. We require only that the institutions that are set to apply law have the courage to do the right thing and to apply it equally to all, which is why the Supreme Court motto is "equal justice under law".  Unfortunately, throughout a lot of American history up until this very day, justice has not been applied equally, although we would like to believe as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."  That bending of the arc towards justice can only come about, not from still more laws, or new interpretation of laws, or this law or that law, but instead from the changing of the heart of man, himself. 

 

All of the justice, all of the change, that a reasonable person wants in America, is available to all of us, if instead of looking upon our neighbor, as something or somebody to be struck down, or hindered, or cheated, or fooled, or any of a thousand wrongful things, we instead look upon our neighbor as a fellow brother, worthy of our love and respect that one human being is obligated to give to another.  Most people, inherently recognize the difference between what is right and what is wrong, but few are willing to live by that code attributed to John Wesley to: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."