Congress should have accepted veto; lawsuits won’t bring back loved ones

Honestly, the biggest surprise about the fact that Congress voted Wednesday to override a veto by President Barack Obama is that it took them so long to do so.
 

OBAMA: Congress should have listened

Obama is in the final year of his presidency and has encountered for most of his two terms a Congress controlled by Republican interests that has made it clear they see their purpose as political obstructionism.

YET IT IS only now that Congress could get its act together to put together the 60 percent majority needed for an override – by which it will get its way on an issue despite presidential objections.

It’s a shame because this particular issue is one time that Obama may have got it right, and the members of Congress will wind up giving in to the base sentiments of people whose own perspective might not be entirely calm and rational.

In this case, the issue at hand relates to the ability of people in this country to file lawsuits against foreign interests in our courts as they relate to alleged terrorist activity.

There are those who’d like to file lawsuits against Saudi Arabia interests whom they want to believe are involved with the actions of Sept. 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon.

THEY HAVE FANTASIES of a court issuing a financial judgment against somebody that they believe will provide vengeance that makes up for the loved ones they had who were killed in the violence of that day.

I don’t doubt they hurt. I’m just not sure what the point is of such lawsuits, since I can’t envision any Saudi interests or any other nation is going to care in the least what a U.S. court thinks, or rules!

Just as people here would be more than willing to disregard any foreign court that tried issuing a ruling against people here.

Which means that these court rulings wouldn’t really mean a thing – other than letting the people who file such lawsuits vent a little of their anger. A clogged court system isn’t worth it, even if it makes some people feel a little better about themselves.

THAT WAS THE basis of Obama issuing his veto of the bill that Congress previously passed. That, and the official reason given by diplomatic experts that all such a law would do is encourage people in other countries to file lawsuits in their countries’ home courts against U.S. citizens and business interests.

Which would mean a global collection of legal morass. Letting the lawyers loose to wreck havoc on each other. Just what the world really needs!

Because Congress – first the Senate, then the House of Representatives – want to go along with the people who dream it is possible to ever fully make up for the bad that happened some 15 years ago.

It was an overwhelming pair of votes that occurred Wednesday – to the point where it can be called a bipartisan measure to override Obama, Which is the reason there aren’t more overrides against this president – Republicans on their own aren’t large enough to blatantly reject everything presidential; no matter how much they fantasize about doing so,

THE PROBLEM WITH going along with this measure is that it encourages the vengeance mentality. Which, if you’re honest about it, doesn’t work. For people to recover from their pain, they need to let go of their hate.

It’s kind of like the death penalty, where you can put someone to death yet there will be family members of the “victim” who will persist in being angry. It may be the one aspect of the Catholic church teachings that makes the most sense; its opposition to capital punishment because of its opposition to vengeance.

The people who wind up filing these lawsuits that will now be permitted will wind up with nothing more than a hollow court ruling. It certainly won’t do a thing to bring back their loved ones.

Or ease their pain; which is supposed to be the whole point to begin with.

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