Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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00-836

Monday, December 4, 2000

From Indianapolis, Indiana

Last Friday was interesting.

In this age of live, color footage from space; of picture-in-a-picture from opposite sides of the planet; of viewers being invited to use the internet to vote on what they're watching at that moment on television.

In the midst of daily discussions about broadband versus narrowband and low-earth-orbit satellites versus geo-synchronous orbit technology;

In these days when we are at the front end of wireless technology which allows you to surf the 'net on your cell phone while driving in rush hour traffic and drinking a cup of coffee;

This.

Official and unofficial Washington was riveted - riveted - last Friday, listening to an AUDIO TAPE of the Supreme Court arguments in case number 00-836; George W. Bush v. The Palm Beach County Canvassing Board.

Talk about turning back the clock. We haven't seen anything like that since William Bendix was glued to his radio to listen to his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers playing baseball in every World War II movie ever made.

There are many differences between a building which serves the interests of people freely elected and a building which serves the purposes of people appointed for life. This might have changed, but I have seen this with my own eyes.

In the U.S. Capitol, there are signs in some corridors which ask for quiet because a hearing may be in progress in the adjoining room. "Quiet, Please," these signs typically say.

When you walked in the front door of the U.S. Supreme Court building - a building which serves the needs of life-time appointees - there also used to be a sign. It said, "Silence."

We spent the weekend watching Judge N. Sanders Sauls gently but firmly move his case along in Tallahassee, Florida.

As I have stated before: I am not a lawyer and I did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I think watching N. Sanders Saul in action might have been one of the best parts of this whole, Through-the-Looking-Glass affair.

Not the least of which is this, Judge Sauls has done more for bald men than anyone since Jean Luc Picard and Sy Sperling.

Remember the name Judge Terry Lewis. Judge Lewis was the Florida Circuit Court judge who ruled that Secretary of State Katherine Harris (remember her?) had the right to hold everyone to that Tuesday, November 14th statutory deadline. Judge Terry Lewis was the judge who was slapped down by the Florida Supreme court which reversed him not once, but twice.

Judge Terry Lewis, I believe, will be the judge whose rulings are AFFIRMED by the U.S. Supreme Court when it rules, perhaps this week.

A sad note. John Alvis, 35, was found dead in his apartment in Baku, Azerbaijan, a victim of a stabbing.

John was a former student of mine, a gentle, optimistic guy whose passion for politics was great, but not as great as his passion for democracy.

John was one of hundreds of Americans - Republicans and Democrats - who live in and among the indigenous populations trying to export our most precious product; democracy.

These people - lots of them young, but not all - live, under difficult conditions, in places like Azerbaijan, and Soviet Georgia, and Indonesia, and Cambodia, and Eastern Europe and South and Central America and Africa trying to bring the lessons of freedom and democracy.

They don't get to fly around on chartered aircraft. They don't get to live in excellent hotels. They don't get to organize events with lots of TV cameras and piped-in music.

For many of these folks a really, really good week is getting a box of paper delivered so they can make copies. John's apartment was, literally, upstairs from his office.

As we watch the fight for the Presidency unfolding on our TV screens, on our radios, and on our desktops, we know with absolute certainty that we will transfer power peacefully because the roots of our democracy run so deep here.

John Alvis and his hundreds of colleagues spend every day trying to graft the smallest cuttings of our democracy onto nascent political organizations around the world.

John had just about completed his tour of duty and was preparing to come home when he was killed.

He will come home. He will be buried in his home country, in his home state of Texas, in the soil containing those same roots of democracy he died trying to carry overseas.
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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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