Normally, this type of entry wouldn’t make it into my momma911 blog but it’s something that really made me think and I thought I’d share.
“What is government if words have no meaning?” It’s the question that Jared Lee Loughner allegedly asked Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in August 2007. It’s what Loughner’s friends say may have prompted his hatred of Giffords, and ultimately his shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 14, including Giffords.
When I heard this question I knew why the congresswoman probably didn’t answer Loughner to his liking. It wasn’t an appropriate time for philosophical or hypothetical questions when so many others at the forum were probably looking for real life answers to real life problems from her. However, it’s unfortunate that Loughner did not consider answering his own question by looking beyond the institution, the politics, and written laws.
I wish he had considered the idea of government of oneself. It’s something that goes beyond words.
If you strip self-government down to the base, government is you and God alone.
And if that relationship between you and the light and the breath of the universe that gave you life worked as one, a man-made set of laws and institutions known as government wouldn’t be needed.
We’d govern ourselves when it came to our environment. We’d govern ourselves when it came to our fellow human beings. And the governing would extend to every living thing around us.
If everyone were to have enough internal love for themselves and respect for themselves, the need for government really wouldn’t need to exist. People would voluntarily help their neighbor. No one would try to cheat others out of money or time. No one would abuse power.
I may be wrong, but it appears at least on the basic level, institutional government emerged from a desire to provide balance among groups of people living together and counter-balance the human lack of love for oneself and love for others.
Many are speculating that Loughner had mental issues. And it’s believed that he needed medical help that he did not receive before the horrible shooting. And no one can know if intervention may have made any difference in this case. And I believe understanding Loughner’s reasoning probably won’t help stop any future shootings.
However, I believe government could exist if words had no meaning.
But that government would be a government of the mind, body and spirit. It would be a government where every beating heart would consider every other heart as important as any other regardless of ethnicity, philosophy or religion. It would be a government where every life is precious.
