...And justice for all; even for the ex-Mr.-Justice-hopefully -soon-to-be-honorable-Herbert Volney

Submitted by Christian Khabay on Sat, 05/01/2010 - 07:19

After reading Edmund Gall's insightful piece "Judging one's entry into politics" as well as listening to Mr. Justice Volney (personally I must still accord Justice Volney the respect of a man of his stature, retired or not) I can only infer that this societal transformation we are going through is taking another turn. Political maturation, as can now be seen is a painful process and one must laud Justice Volney’s decision to leave behind a prominent (if at times controversial) career as a respected jurist and throw the dice at a marginal constituency as St. Joseph. It is a brave man who exposes his inner machinations to such a critical public but at the same time one can be hopeful that such a man sees the wisdom of it. Maybe, it’s the act of a desperate man frustrated by an archaic unchanging system forced to confront it at its base level and try to defeat it.

The purity and apparent sincerity being displayed might be the one thing that pushes him to win. He’s found a very raw nerve, touched on it (by design or not), made it his own and quite possibly related it to every common man / woman out there who feels the same angst he feels about the same things he does. Isn’t that the key to a successful salesman? Genius!

He’s forced us to look closer at the judiciary and question if it’s independence is real or imagined. If it is to be apolitical, surly it must be in theory only.

Judges and Magistrates are suppose to act impartially, is a given. As you and I, they are citizens too, and no law in the constitution bars them from demitting office and entering politics or even to vote. As a democratic society everyone is afforded the same basic rights, thinking for one’s self, having political preference is not reserved for some. The option to recuse one’s self if impartiality could be compromised is always an option. The right of due process by way of appeal is afforded under the constitution if bias or unfairness can be ascertained. Checks and balances have been placed in the constitution because people judge, not robots.

Without knowing, it is a fact that every sitting jurist has a political opinion, as a professional one must divorce one’s self from personal opinion and judge each case solely by the law. It is a simple concept and one that can hardly be subverted.

It is well known (unofficially) that each sitting judge on America’s Supreme Court can be categorized as either liberal, moderate or conservative. This has been shown based on the judgments that are handed down by them, and as a rule democratic Presidents appoint democratic judges and Republican presidents do likewise. Once again a simple concept, humans not robots.

By trying to demonize Justice Volney’s actions Mr. Manning has once again taken advantage of mass ignorance to advance his own agenda. Justice Volney’s dismissive approach to Mr. Manning’s rhetoric is evidence of a realistic understanding of what faces this nation. Misdirection, deceit and of late fear mongering.

Illiterate and feeble minds are putty in the hands of politicians, Mr. Manning has helped create it and he’s now using it to his advantage, a long standing PNM strategy. Don’t let them think for themselves, think for them, mould their thoughts. The irony is that Dr. Rowley and Mrs. Beckles-Robinson are such strong personalities; one can only wonder what keeps them there. One can only guess that the core values they once believed in are no longer there. They are now being forced to subservience and their once bright light is now dimming. Their one hope is that if the PNM can be abjectly rejected at the polls, there will be fallout and maybe Patrick Manning will be subsumed in it and only then can they be allowed to express themselves.

Justice Volney says that he stared into the eye of evil, that evil is expanding, that evil is autocracy, that evil is tyranny, that evil is lawlessness.

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Mrs. Beckles-Robinson