Lightning Rods - By Helen DeWitt Page 0,79
a suit for a million bucks in damages.
Still, there’s no point in gratuitously alienating an FBI agent. However philosophical you may be about being in breach of Federal regulations, if an FBI agent starts going into detail it’s only polite to show concern.
“Gee,” said Joe. “That’s terrible.”
Something in Walter’s expression suggested he had not shown enough concern.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is just tell the truth.
“Well, the way I see it,” said Joe, “is what would our Founding Fathers have done?”
“What do you mean?” asked Walter.
“Well, the reason we had the Revolution in the first place was no taxation without representation, am I right?”
“Sure,” said Walter.
“But if you think about it, that was really just part of a larger issue, which was that people were being governed by laws which were none of their making. The fact of the matter is, Walter, that the overwhelming majority of laws in this country were made before you and I were even born, by people who couldn’t represent us because we didn’t exist. Now I don’t know if you know this, but Thomas Jefferson said each generation should make its own laws and not be bound by the laws of its parents.”
“I didn’t know Jefferson said that,” said Walter.
“Many people don’t,” said Joe. Joe had learned the fact in eleventh grade, in his American history class, at a time when the class was still called Americanism versus Communism, and he had never forgotten it. “And as a matter of fact,” Joe went on, “we can actually see why that should be so. If your parents were anything like mine they were probably quite conservative on sexual matters. What Jefferson saw was that you have to make your laws fit where you’re at now.”
“Well, that’s very interesting,” said Walter, “but—”
“Also, the South had every right to secede,” said Joe, drawn on by process of association to the other thing he remembered from eleventh grade. “If you think about it, they had just as much right to break away as the colonies did to break away from England in the first place. The only actual difference was that they were on the same continent. Well, you’re not going to tell me we should write to the Queen of England and apologize and explain that it was all an unfortunate misunderstanding. You’re not going to tell me it’s all right for Hawaii to secede because it’s off in the Pacific. Nossir. Which isn’t to say that slavery is not a terrible wrong. I’m not saying for one second that Lincoln was not a great man, I’m just saying sometimes we have to keep our heads and not get carried away by the Gettysburg Address.”
“Well, I see what you’re saying,” said Walter. “And I have to say I never thought of it that way before. But for all practical purposes the law is the law.”
“I accept that,” said Joe. “I’m just pointing out that when Thomas Jefferson takes a different view, we have to ask whether we haven’t gotten side-tracked somewhere along the line. Maybe we’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Maybe we’ve failed to separate the wheat from the chaff.”
“Well, Joe,” said Walter. “You may be right, and you may not be right. That’s not for me to decide. I don’t make the laws; that’s not my job. It’s my job to enforce the law in its present state.”
“I appreciate that, Walter,” said Joe. “I know you’re just doing your job.”
“At the same time, it’s sometimes necessary, in the interests of national security, to take a larger view.”
As soon as Joe heard that he knew his immediate problems were over. He might end up in jail, but at least Walter wasn’t going to haul his ass off to jail in the near future.
“Stan,” he called over, “another coupla beers over here.”
The beers came, and Walter said, “But you’re right about one thing. Times have changed. That’s why I think this has such a big contribution to make to the nation as a whole.”
“In what way?” asked Joe.
“Well, for better or worse, the sexual drive of men in office is one of the biggest nightmares national security has to deal with. It opens the person in question to pressures you really don’t want a person in that position to be under. Blackmail. Coercion. Extortion. In the old days, when the press knew their place, it wasn’t so bad. JFK could do what he damn well wanted and the press would just look the