"Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty."
--- Benjamin Franklin on Justice
As we enjoyed a leisurely stroll along Manhattan Beach yesterday, the subject of Justice never specically came up, but it was as clear as the noses on our faces. That is to say, it seemed completely obscured by regulations of the year 2020, which had us wearing masks and never sharing hugs on what would be our Christmas celebration together outdoors and socially distanced this year.
In Los Angeles County as in much of the country, masks are mandatory, and those who refuse to comply are subject to substantial fines.
Social distancing six feet apart and not touching the same foods had our granddaughter celebrating her tenth birthday in June outdoors with signifiantly spaced chairs, individual pizzas to order and of course no games that might put the children close together, despite children having been shown to be highly unlikely to die or get seriously sick from Covid-19.
It was about then that I read about a mother and two toddlers who received fines for going to Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach, where a normal year would have us attending free concerts in the park but had been banned for public use in the Summer of 2020.
During that same time period, many businesses had been boarded up after being looted and destroyed, statues of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were being torn down, and inner cities were in flames, with anyone arrested immediately released without bail in the big cities where this criminal activity occurred. Most looters, arsonists and other potential felons never faced any kind of punishment. In downtown Seattle, rioters took over several city blocks to form the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), which they declared exempt from all government regulations. They ran the police out of their precinct house, painted grafitti on buildings they didn't own and looted businesses, all with the apparent approval of the Mayor of Seattle. The Seattle City Council soon cut their police budget in response to demands to defund the police from those CHOP "organized protesters."
Calls to defund police went up in blue cities around the country. Jay made it clear when they were in Montana last summer that he and Sasha were not in favor of defunding the police, but surprisingly lots of people you would not suspect seem to be.
As Mick Jagger presciently sang in 1968 in the Rolling Stones song Sympathy for the Devil, "Every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints."
In December throughout California, after months of indoor restaurant dining being shutdown, Governor Newsom declared by edict there would be no outdoor dining at restaurants. Almost simultaneously, Governor Newsom dined indoors at The French Laundry, an uber-expensive restaraunt in Napa on the dime of a HealthCare lobbyist, with many of his HealthCare bureaucrats attending the same non-socially distanced, non-mask wearing event.
In Manhattan Beach, however, the city has taken a rebel stand by setting up public tables with chairs not owned by specific restaurants so that diners could purchase takeout food and sit down nearby to dine outdoors. As a result, yesterday downtown Manhattan Beach was jammed like New York's Manhattan in a normal year.
I'm not a fan of crowds any time myself, but I was happy to see so many people embracing their fleeting freedom where they could find it.
Not everyone shares my opinion, and in fact I would project that my good friend Mike (pictured as Santa with his grandson Henry below) and Sasha strongly disapprove this flaunting of restrictions during a pandemic, as they feel that the government should take stronger steps to enforce mandatory masks and social distancing, which is certainly a valid thesis.
In any case, we exchanged presents with the kids in the Library parking lot, which probably violates some rule in California.
In his brief definition of the Virtue of Justice, Ben Franklin doesn't mention laws, but he was undoubtedly against edicts without consent of the governed. One of the battle cries of the Revolutionary War, you may recall, was "No taxation without representation," and quite frankly, the tea taxes that led to the Boston Tea Party and the Stamp Act, which taxed paper and would have been of more direct interest to the printing magnate Benjamin Franklin, were in today's tax-heavy environment marginally insignificant and necessary and justified to pay for the French and Indian War fought for the benefit of the British colonists.
From what I've learned about Franklin so far --- and with that I acknowledge that my approach to Franklin's 13 Virtues has been to write about whatever stream of consciousness puts before me at the time the next Virtue comes up in my writing schedule rather than taking a more logical approach of finishing The Great Course on Benjamin Franklin and applying the most appropriate section --- it makes sense that Franklin would not focus on laws themselves but on the greatest good.
After all, Ben chose Deism over his family'sf Presbyterian faith, because he felt the underlying purpose of all religions to do good took precedence over petty ceremonies peculiar to each particular sect, whereas the emphasis from the pulpit often seemed to be on the latter. He chose to focus on doing good for his family, fellow Philadelphians, country and world.
Benjamin Franklin asked himself the same question every morning when he woke up:
"What Good shall I do this Day?"
At bed time, he asked another:
"What Good have I done today?"
Rigorously adhering to this daily self-examination, Benjamin Franklin accomplished far more than most individuals. Some might say he reached the Greek definition of Apotheosis by the end of his amazing life, though I haven't read that as being his intention.
What brought that term to mind was the Dan Brown book I just finished, The Lost Symbol, which I thought I had read when it first came out, but apparently it went on a closet shelf after Julie finished what I believe was a Christmas gift from me. In any case, typical for fictional symbologist Robert Langdon (from The Da Vinci Code), the book includes ancient religious symbolism, this time in our nation's capital. It includes the Apotheosis of Washington, a Sistine Chapel-like painting on the ceiling of the U.S. Capital Building Rotunda. In the fresco, George Washington has risen to the heavens in glory, a God of sorts overseeing men who should hope to duplicate his selflessness in working on behalf of their greatest good.
Interestingly, neither George Washington nor Benjamin Franklin spoke much in assemblies. They allowed passionate arguments to go on freely around them most of the time, staying above the fray. When they did speak, everyone knew it was after considering all sides of an issue.
In the case of Benjamin Franklin, it seems he didn't always listen. When he started down his road into government as Clerk for the Pennsylvania Assembly, which was more of a foot in the door for lucrative printing opportunities than the opening salvo of a power-hungry politican, he found himself so bored by debates that he spent much of his time filling in Magic Squares, which require putting a series of sequenced number into a grid so that horizontally or vertically they add up to the same number.
If you have read The Lost Symbol, you'll know Langdon must decipher "Franklin Squares" to save his friend and the United States. While doing such mental gymanastics during the course of taking notes is further evidence of what a genius Franklin must have been, by the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, he often dozed off on warm afternoons during important speeches.
In any case, rather than make strong oratory arguments, where in the heat of the moment enemies might be made of people he wished to become allies, Franklin would write down his opinions in convincing essays, frequently winning the support of all sides without direct confrontation with rising defensive voices.
With Poor Richard's Almanack and amusing essays, Franklin had established himself as someone who used humor to make more substantial points, which also made him more palatable as a politician. Despite saying little, he was re-elected many times to the Pennsylvania Assembly and eventually became their President.
He also joined one of the most famous public service organizations in the world, the Masons, and within three years he was earned the rank of Grand Master of his order. I became a bit more familiar with the ceremonies leading to the 33rd Degree in The Lost Symbol, including the fact that in reaching the third degree, initiates are bombarded with questions like President Donald Trump at a news conference. That intense exam is the source of the term "giving someone the third degree.".
Ben Franklin's persistent efforts to do the greatest good no doubt was the primary reason why his fellow citizens trusted him to act as Philadelphia's ambassador to England despite staying overseas for as long as 15 years at a chunk. In fact, Franklin became so enmeshed in British culture, the suggestion was made that he should run for Parliament, though colonies did not have that type of representation.
It would have been a far different world had Franklin taken permanent residence in England to gain a position in Parliament. He would then presumably have firmly aligned himself on the side of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War.
Instead, he became the prominent elder statesman crafting a new country with the admirable goal of equal Justice for all.
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