Newmann: The toeing conundrum
These days, it seems like there’s a very slight distinction between toeing the line … and toeing the law.
The line is getting more and more blurred. And so is the law.
When you start writing about either the line or the law … well, be careful. A bunch of stuff that used to be illegal now seems to be legal. And stuff that may have been legal could now be illegal. Unless it’s not.
Suppose that I have a bunch of tattoos and, for my everyday wardrobe, wear clothing that has the Chicago Bulls logo plastered all over it. One has to hope that, living in the valley, folks will only look, then possibly shake their heads and think, “Why isn’t he wearing Nuggets gear?”
They might not like the tats and/or the clothing … or the way I look in general. But they most likely would not think that, just because of the way I dress and look, I’m a bona fide MS-13 member. And, without any actual proof that I am one of those bad guys, they probably would not try to deport me to Nebraska. With no way or hope of getting back to Colorado, even with legal intervention by the various courts.
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Or suppose I start spouting out rhetoric that many folks here don’t agree with. To some (perhaps many) people, they might not be the kindest — or most politically correct — things to say. Even so, it’s improbable that I’d be suddenly picked up by a bunch of masked “agents” while walking on Mikaela’s Way and whisked away, never to be seen again in Colorado. These occurrences do not happen here.
We have to hope that they never do.
But there’s only a fine thread separating the violations of the rights of “those guys” and the potential violations of the rights of … us. And, as much as we may dislike — even detest — what those “other” folks may be saying or how frightened we may be by our perception of how they dress or look … they still deserve the same rights, privileges and justice (as in due process) that the rest of us “normal” folks are accorded.
Some of the blurring between toeing the line and toeing the law seems to stem from the current, and rather unprecedented, conflict between two branches of government: the executive and the judicial (the third, the legislative, seems content to remain on the sidelines). While the two entities wrestle about who has the final say on a variety of issues, folks can become confused and, in some cases, polarized by constant back-and-forth between the two branches. The concept of justice, and of the law, can seem more like an abstract tug of war than a series of rational decisions.
So it becomes hard to tell, in regard to the above, what toeing the line is (is it how we look, act, dress, what we say) and what the toeing the law is (and does it also involve how we look, act, dress, what we say).
We’ll see how the power play between the two government branches plays out. Have to hope some form of rational thoughts — and decisions — prevail.
In the interim, folks in this valley can still speak freely, safely wear Bulls gear and expose whatever tats they have.
Without worrying about a one-way trip to Nebraska.
Tom Newmann splits his time between Edwards and Queenstown, New Zealand. He has been going winter-to-winter since 1986. He was also a journalist in Missoula …
