The recent incidents at our nation’s capital and heated political quarrels they inspire across our country, bring to my mind compelling lines written by playwright Robert Bolt in A Man for All Seasons. I refer to an interchange in the play between Sir Thomas More and William Roper. More was the saintly Chancellor of England in the 16th century under King Henry VIII — who beheaded him. Roper was a passionate, righteous lawyer and the fiancé of More’s daughter.
Roper: So now you’d give the Devil the benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
I don’t believe the rioting at the Capitol Building seriously endangered our American democracy. I fear, however, that the sweeping demonizing and unsubstantiated condemnation of fellow Americans on different ends of the ideological spectrum that seem unconcerned with law — may. My fear is grounded in a complicated personal journey.