This week, you expressed your intentions to vote against the conviction of former President Donald Trump.
You explained that “the key word is ‘precedence’” and that Democrats simply seek “revenge” through impeachment.
“Better to move on,” you concluded.
Photo by Texas Observer
You know, you and I share an ideological idol, Senator. The work of psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl is particularly meaningful to me right now. Not only have I analyzed his passages in my classroom with my students, but I turn to his work during personal moments of existential angst.
I know you know that he studied under Signund Freud, and — like many of Freud’s protégés — the apprentice broke away from the master. Frankl asserted that human nature is driven by a search for meaning, not pleasure or power.
And after surviving one of the most depraved chapters in the Human Story, he remained convinced that “there must be meaning in suffering.”
And, boy, is our country suffering.
Last year, you tweeted one of my favorite Frankl quotes: “The last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
It’s a powerful proclamation, right? Frankl valued freedom in a way you and I may never understand.
But anyone who’s read Man’s Search for Meaning knows that Frankl insisted that “freedom, however, is not the last word.”
Frankl asserts that “freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth.”
And, Senator — this is where it gets really really good. Frankl confronts us with the most basic truth:
“In fact,” he clarifies “freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.”
Woah.
Frankl actually proposed that the Statue of Liberty be complimented with a Statue of Responsibility on the West coast. That’s how much he treasured this balance.
Author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding would’ve agreed with Frankl about the importance of Responsibility.
After serving in the British Navy during WWII, he too formulated opinions about human nature. This is another book I love reading with my students because they unearth more and more powerful symbols every time I return to it.
In his dystopian novel — a step-by-step microcosm of the Holocaust — 12 year-old Jack is able to overthrow a democratically elected leader by creating a “we and they,” by escalating verbal taunts to violence, by turning choir boys to hunters.
One of my students connected the breaking of Piggy’s glasses to Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass.”
Historians don’t call this pivotal event “Kristallnacht” anymore because it makes it seem like all that happened is that glass broke. Some Jewish storefronts. Some synagogues. We call it the Pogrom of November now because it was the first coordinated attack of the Jewish community.
It was my second year teaching, and I was blown away.
“This is the first time Jack uses violence against Piggy, Ms. Diaz,” my sophomore said.
“And Piggy’s glasses break.”
Jack is never held accountable. Ralph says, “That was a dirty trick,” and the tribe — like you suggest — “moved on.”
Burning of the synagogue in Hanover, Germany, night of 9 November 1938
I always ask my students this question: when was the beginning of the end? When was the point of no return on that island? They have passionate answers.
“When the Conch breaks!”
“When Jack paints his face red, white, and black and kills the pig!”
“When they called Piggy ‘Piggy’ even though he asked them not to!”
Eventually, I share Golding’s interview where he lays bare the failure of this experimental democracy:
“I think, really, perhaps you could say the most important thing said in the book is when Jack says, ‘Bullocks to the rules! Why should we obey the rules?…and Ralph responds, ‘Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got.’”
Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got.
“That really is, I suppose you could say, what the book is about. If you don’t have law, then you’re lost. You’re finished. You’re gone.”
Senator, I agree with you that the key word considering the fair trial you will oversee soon is “precedence.”
Your action or inaction will set a precedence: are we a nation of Laws, or do some presidents get to say, “Bullocks to the rules!,” Senator?
Allowing Trump to wash his hands and walk away and “move on” would indeed set a dangerous and disgusting precedence.
Will we allow Secretaries of State across the political spectrum to be bullied when the results of our elections don’t suit the president? Can the Commander in Chief command 11,000 or so votes every now and then? Will you set that precedence?
Beyond intimidating election officials and ginning up a crowd of violent rioters, will we set a precedence and allow presidents to fabricate lie after lie about election fraud — even accusing your fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz of stealing the 2016 Iowa primaries? Is this a new normal?
Frankl would ask you, Senator: will our freedoms “degenerate to mere arbitrariness” because Republican senators will not take responsibility by holding Donald Trump responsible?
Golding would warn you, Senator: if you allow Trump to walk away from the fire match in hand without facing the Law, trust in our democracy might be “lost…finished…gone.”
In order for your fellow Americans, Texans, and Houstonians to “move on,” you must acknowledge that seeking justice is not the same thing as “seeking revenge.”
My students will study your actions like they study these books, Senator — and not in some vague future in history text. They study you now. Do the right thing, and heed the warnings of those who witnessed the dangers of appeasing authoritarianism.
This is the last of your “human freedoms.” You must reject misinformation, radicalization, and the pressures of a bamboozled base and make your own way. Then, we can come together in Truth and finally “move on.”