The Trap: Words and Validation

Confidence. Self-reliance. Righteousness. Justice. Morality.

These traits are not acquired by shouting the loudest, by self-proclamation, by streams of self-laudatory words. They are self-evident by their very nature. The American system of justice is a sacred cornerstone of our democracy and it needs no words or oratory to prop it up. The people who walk with the quiet knowledge and peaceful serenity of righteousness do not need to have their actions validated by the masses. Only people who can not clear their consciousness, who can not be honored by their actions alone, must constantly and consistently seek validation from their victims. It is that validation that gives them license to take what they could not achieve by having the confident self-reliance of a righteous cause.

Dire statements long after the successful trial and conviction of Don Siegelman were issued to refute the nosy meddling press and to quiet murmurs seeping out of Alabama. But it wasn’t enough. The sculpting of Nick Bailey had to be legitimized, to be justified, to be verbally decreed worthy in order to be validated. But it wasn’t enough. The silence of Lanny Young had to be bought in a language the wheeler-dealer would understand all too well. But it wasn’t enough. Legitimate questions about the sanctity of the jury, about the wrath of a judge and his need for vengeance, about bond issues, about a mountain of trivial evidence that was gleaned from the best efforts of years of biased journalism were all buried in legal arguments, in motions, in self-righteous decrees that served to only create distance between the men who were sent to prison and the truth about how they got there and the nature of their trial and conviction. But it still wasn’t enough. In a fountain of words that have come spewing out of a fissure in justice with an insatiable need for validation, the accused who were on trial have changed. The culprits have become people like Jill Simpson, Scott Horton, a group generically referred to as “Siegelman supporters;” the accused are the “ultra-liberal” newspapers, they have become you, they have become me. It is us. Until we pay homage to their wishes, until we collectively validate their rhetoric, until we give them the confidence that justice and righteousness could not, we are the accused.

The Alabama Republican Party is now going to bat for the Middle District of Alabama. Almost a year after issues were raised about the politicization of the Department of Justice, a situation that led to the resignation of the Attorney General, the Republican Party is showing how well it has learned the lessons of the past year and how willing it is to return to a non-partisan Justice Department by commenting on a legal case still under appeal. The latest instrument references the usual suspects, it is rife with false syllogisms, it makes a vague reference to the morality and righteousness of George Bush, it lists a number of debatable or questionable issues as facts; and after saying that Don Siegelman is guilty because he is a Democrat, and that to ask questions about his trial and conviction is to defend corruption, the document concludes by saying that he belongs in prison. From this latest statement, issued by the Alabama Republican Party, to the indignant running commentary of Louis Franklin and Steven Feaga, to the denials and stonewalling of Leura Canary, to the recalcitrant silence of operatives associated with the dispensation of justice in the Siegelman matter, it has apparently still not been enough. Only when the victims, all of us, validate their undeserved righteousness, can the Siegelman investigation be properly closed by the Republican Party and the Middle District of Alabama.

This is not about Democrats. It is not about Republicans. It is not about what Richard Scrushy did or didn’t do at HealthSouth, and what happened in Birmingham. Political passion is as old as our country and the adversarial relationships of political parties, with free and open debates, is one of the hallmarks that makes America unique among nations. However, in the issue at hand, it is the endless need for validation, the unrelenting deluge of nervous decrees about the righteousness of their cause, the furtive actions concerning Nick Bailey and Lanny Young, and the need for earnest orders from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that unravels this whole situation. The partisan trap makes us all victims of the rhetoric and an honest accounting of the truth is a casualty lost to us all.

Confidence. Self-reliance. Righteousness. Justice. Morality.

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[Fuller finally sent a response to the Appellate Court about the bond issue. So at this writing, the near future of the Siegelman situation is awaiting the higher court's decision. Toward this end, the Republican Party's instrument could have been a preemptive plea for justification ahead of an 11th Circuit decision that could be unfavorable to their rhetoric.]