UNDERSTANDING THE PHRASE

     Law and order. Meant to be a reassuring statement, one that promised a rosy future, a safe place to live and work, and a step towards a perfect society, law would prevail and order would be the result. Sounds tempting, does it not, particularly in times of great societal upheaval and resultant insecurity. When there is a yearning for quiet, for a bit of so  necessary 'quiet' time, there grows a hunger for that law and order. But truly, how many of us think it through and truly understand what that phrase has come to mean, how it has been taken over by the wrong crowd, shall we say, its assurances and meanings perverted to the nth degree. It is now a most dangerous phrase not meant for public consumption in a society truly following laws and living in order.
     One of the oldest political tactics around, people seeking power within a society often create a chaotic situation within that society and then come riding to the rescue as they promise 'law and order. They incite violence, incur disorder as a result, raise the interference and the accusations to a strong degree, a destructive level to that society and gather in the frightened, the threatened, those wishing to have a more controlled society. Suddenly, we have a law and order candidate and a scapegoat paying the price for the incitement of disorder by his/her opponent.
    This is precisely the situation we have right now, all over the world, and in and of particular concern, right here at home, in America. We have, on one side, a man who incites violence with his every lie, with his every exaggeration, a purpose of his life. He states that were he to be President, there would be law and order, with all seemingly ignoring the fact that, well, he IS the president, and where is that vaunted law and order he promises.
     In fact, that law and order has gone by the board, destroyed in the name of winning another term of destructiveness, another chance to remain in office for ever and a day. Another chance to continue to dismantle the real law and order of a good society, introduce fear and despotism, use  terrorist tactics of repressive governments and induce a different kind of law and order.
     On the other side we have a person who understands the importance of both law and order, but knows that there is a good one, representing positive thought and behavior, and there is a tainted one, stinking of tyranny, of all that America holds in contempt. When the judges of the Nazi regime were held to charges, put on trial, for their participation in the Nazi society, enforcing their laws, complicit and implicit in the war crimes, their excuse was that they were doing their jobs, enforcing the laws of that society, keeping the order those laws provided. 
     Trump is an ignorant and evil man, a person who believes in power, in repression and oppression, in the rule of and by fear. He cares naught for people, only for the bottom line, most preferably his believing deeply in using public office to enrich himself and his cronies. This is a law and order that ruins a society, that is the enemy of goodness, of grace, of progress and needed change. It is the destruction of a progressive, onward thinking and moving society. It is a law and order which perverts the very phrase and its meaning, turning positive to negative.
      All society needs to change. At times, the enthusiasm, the desperate need of and for change, seems overwhelming. There is protesting. At times the elements of society clash in their protests. There are leaders, the young, whose idealism lends itself to this developing disorder, usually instigated by outsiders, and many from the opposing side, all meant to re-enforce their own law and order proposals. But watch what happens over time. Those 'rabid' protesters, those crazy kids, grow up. They turn to the laws and order of that very society and grow into it, changing it from the inside, becoming the lawyers, the legislators, the leaders of the next generation. The law changes for the better and the order is improved, allowing more access to the best of society to more, to those who have been denied access before.
     The law and order we want is not that which proposes to destroy confidence in the country. It is not the law and order which tells people to vote twice!!!! It is not the law and order of a man who never understood nor ever will understand, the meaning of honesty, of compassion, of civil rights, of unity, of just and moral laws. Moral laws. A foreign concept to him, yet so integral to a good and progressive society that takes care of its own. The very principle that those Nazi judges disregarded.
     We all want law and order. Besides the great TV series by that name, a show which portrays the difficulty in enforcing moral laws and in improving society, we all value the benefits of laws, of the order they maintain, of the surety and confidence they inspire, allowing people to think and to improve on situations. That is the law and order we want and need, not the one presented by Trump, defiled by his very use of them. Defy him, turn him down, and VOTE for Biden. Fight the difficulties this election and these times present and VOTE. Early, mail, regular time - but VOTE. It is our only chance to pull our country and society back from the brink of the crumbling edge of the cliff we now stand upon. Think and VOTE for the future, a good one, for your children.