Councilor Johnson: My faith in the U.S. Constitution and its systems of change hold strong

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How old fashioned it may seem now to quite a few people that an elected representative states that he respects and believes in the rule of law and the vote of the people in a statewide initiative. That concept is so outrageous that The Reflector decided to run a poll on whether believing such buncombe will cost me my city council seat. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t believe that the rule of law and the sanctity of the vote is buncombe. I believe that for over 240 years the bedrock of American democracy has been that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to the law and that it is fairly applied and enforced to all people. We can’t as a city declare that a certain law or sets of laws do not apply to us, because we voted against those laws. That borders on insanity.

There is a system in this country for removing what some would believe are poorly written laws. One of our best examples of this is in our own Federal Constitution and its Amendments. The 18th Amendment (prohibition) was voted on and passed in 1920. Thirteen years later the 21st Amendment was approved repealing the 18th Amendment, after finding that the 18th was totally unworkable. I have suggested to the two candidates and their supporters in a public meeting that if they felt so strongly that I-1639 was unconstitutional that they follow the lead of the 18th and 21st amendments and work towards its removal from Washington state law.



In a Columbian interview on 19 July, Ms. Walters stated that she and her group were not interested in that because it would take years for that to happen. This statement belies the crux of the matter. She and Mr. VanGelder have said repeatedly that they are strict believers in the U.S. Constitution, especially in the 2nd and 4th amendments when dealing with firearms, but when the very document that they and I have great faith and trust in shows them the way to solve this issue, they choose expediency over faith in the system and in the U.S. Constitution.

Forty years ago I took an oath when enlisting into the Army, that I would defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and I still believe that today. Of course Ms. Walters and Mr. Van Gelder are not enemies of the constitution and of the country. They are in my estimation two people who are unwilling to put in the hard work to change what they disagree with, and want someone else to do the heavy lifting for them. In this case that someone else will not be me.