Let’s remember, respect is earned

I take issue with the Herald’s Oct. 22 editorial page assessment of Justice Scalia’s talk about judges’ roles in social issues.

Not surprisingly, the main criticism you have is how he views the media and the general public. Your criticism of him, “Scalia’s superficial view,” is exactly the problem he refers to. You just made his point for him. Good going!

It’s too bad you couldn’t take something of more substance to comment about such as the impact of having to decide social issues in the courts, which make them controversial and “places their independence at risk” (Scalia).

Further, you say Justice Scalia doesn’t respect the media (which may be true for good reason), nor does he respect citizens. I for one don’t see Scalia’s statement as slamming people. I believe his statements were based on his belief that Supreme Court arguments and decisions are hard to understand and most people do not like wading through the legalese. That doesn’t, nor should it, make me feel at all insulted for finding their decisions tedious to read. As you say, there are legal affairs editors bringing to us court decisions and their impact in layman terms.

Finally, if you’re going to bring up “respect” as in “Scalia doesn’t respect citizens”, I believe you have this backwards. When I was growing up, respect was earned, and generally those who held high offices such as the presidency and Supreme Court seats were esteemed, highly-educated people who have earned our respect, regardless of whether we always agreed with them.

I believe it is we, the citizens, who need to learn about respect. It’s going to be hard for us to learn this, however, when we have a couple of former presidents disrespecting a sitting president, publicly criticizing him and calling him a liar. If you’re going to talk about respect, why not discuss the harm of a nation turning into an “impolite society,” with two former presidents leading us there.

Joan Stavert

Marysville