Hand to heart

This story—this little, news-filler story—really heartens me. Newly-appointed Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Suzi LeVine took her oath of office with her hand not on a book, but on an electronic reading device.

But for me, that’s not the great part.

The open document on which LeVine rested her hand was not a Bible, but the U.S. Constitution, open to the Nineteenth Amendment. That’s the one that granted women the right to vote.

You know, when you take Federal office or join the military or become a naturalized citizen, your oath is some variant of the notion that you’ll “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States”. Your loyalty and obligation are not to any human or humans, not an administration, a Congress, a political party, a religious sect or any of that nonsense.

The Founding Fathers agreed, in writing that Constitution, that we would be a nation of laws, regardless of which party might be in power. And the deal is—if you want to live here, that’s your price of admission. And if you don’t happen to like a particular law, you don’t toss your toys out of the pram or stamp your feet. You work—through the elective system—to get it changed.

(Yes, we are in the process of debasing that system with our system of lobbyists and campaign financing. But so far, although politicians have been bought, the Constitution hasn’t.)

And, in fact, Article VI, Section 3 flat out states, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Swirl that around your cup, Tea Party. 

Other office-takers have apparently also taken their oaths on copies of the Constitution, although this is the first time an electronic version was used. LeVine used some no-name e-reader, thus taking no position on the Kindle-Nook controversy.

I like all of this.