(Author’s Note: Due to unrelated circumstances, we took this down, some time ago. We are now re-posting it. Enjoy!!)

Though the following does not “fit” the classic form of an Ode, I feel the need to express a few thoughts, upon the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. It’s in the form of a conversation “to” him. Bear with me. . .

PROSE-ODE TO AN OPPONENT: ANTONIN SCALIA (1936-2016)

I didn’t expect to be writing this. Not now. Your death, for that is what it is: DEATH. Not “passing,” whatever that means. Perhaps you might have used the latter, but given your directness, I suspect you’d have optedfor the “real” term. No sugar-coating. Goddess knows, you didn’t sugar-coat, when someone, like Sandra O’Connor, disagreed with you. . . Your death was a shock. . . Even more so to you, I suspect. . .

Your strengths were your weaknesses. Force of intellect, sharp wit, black-&-white line-drawing. No grey tones, in a Grey-Tone Universe. Urbane manner and enlivening of the party, all the while harbouring deep-seeded anger. . . .

That certainty must have been reassuring to you, even if not to the rest of us. The line-drawing, I mean. The cliches I could use right now are so many: never minced words, said what was on your mind, took no prisoners. . . I could go on, but I’m sure your patience, or lack thereof, would not allow such dawdling.

But such “certainty” is authoritarian, is there for the holder’s self-esteem quotient, more than for any observer, unless the observer needs self-worth bolstering, from the outside. But if it comes from the outside, it ‘t’ain’t real. . .

That Good, Ol’ Time Constitution! That was your mantra! Except where Criminal Procedure came into the picture. At least, new technologies didn’t escape being put under Fourth Amendment restrictions, except where so-called “national security” came in, even as you let the “uniforms with guns” off the hook too many times. Miranda was a dirty word to you, wasn’t it? Except when your bud, Billy decreed it “constitutionalized,” though rightly so. . . And the Sixth Amendment: is that where you placated your conscience occasionally, about the death penalty?

The First Amendment! Ah, that’s where we agreed, except where “pasties” and “G-strings” were concerned. Speech is speech, Dear Opponent. Speech is Expression. Whether the body is doing it, or the mouth, or a figurative or literal printing press, is. Did they have laptops in 1791?. . “What is ‘Political’?”

I still recall the disdain you showed for “Thoreauvian beau ideals” as expressed in a South Bend, Indiana bar case. . . So much for consenting adults. . . Interesting how a majority of the country agrees with Social Libertarianism. . . No Libertine, you. . . Ah, but then there’s that family-sized one. . .

Though to be fair, you were an Equal Opportunity Offender: burning the flag, as political protest with a message. That took chutzpah! I was so glad to have you along, on that one! After all, it’s only a piece of cloth, no meaning there, unless the viewer brings along a steamer-trunk worth of mental and emotional baggage. But then one’s steamer-trunk of junk is no better than anyone else’s. That’s “America.” That’s Entertainment!

But please don’t try to convince me “hate” speech is protected from punishment, when an Anglo-Euro kid does it to African-Americans, but can be “punishment-enhanced,” when an African-American kid does it to an Anglo-Euro guy. . .

Chicago so-called “free marketer.” Did you really believe that palaver? Or was it convenient rubbish for a corporatist ideology? A mask to appeal to the lesser tendencies in your fellow humyn beings: so-called Socio-economic Libertarianism, as though everyone on the Planet were self-sufficient and independent of everyone else, of the “other.” If I’d gotten you drunk, would you have done a David Stockman woodshed confession? One is tempted to use the “F” word, here, but I shall demure. And, as YOU would have known, I’m talking about a certain European ideology of the 20th and now 21st Centuries, not a pejorative for a group of people...

So, you didn’t like Wickard v. Filburn’s broad reading of the Commerce Power? That could only have been, because you didn’t want Congress to regulate those wonderfully self-regulating corporations, which periodically plunge us into economic chaos, while their patrons, the “big boys,” bask on their private islands, and their gated communities, safe from us “barbarians at the gates.” All the while pandering to what Tim Robbins once called, “our pornographic obsession with celebrity culture.”

What contempt that showed for the welfare of your fellow humyn beings. Or perhaps I should say “well-being,” since the connotations your constituencies have placed on “welfare” have so permeated and mangled the denotation of the word. . . Ironic how denotation and connotation so diverge, for “political” purposes. . .

And did you really hate LGBT people? A good, old-fashioned bigot? Or were you afraid? There’s that “bright-line,” “black-&-white” line-drawing in the Grey-Tone Universe. A man’s a man, and a womyn’s a womyn. And they’re meant to make babies, who have an inalienable right to life, from the moment of conception to the moment of birth; after that, Honey, you’re ON your own! Enter Economic Libertarianism again. . .Or should I say, Economic Separatism?

How comforting it must have been, to be able to fall back on your Self-confirming “Work-Ethic” Stuff. Work-Ethic’s fine, when there are good-paying jobs within which to exercise it. . . But your corporate, wealth-shielding buddies took care of the Jobs Thing, shipping those to places, where expectations are much lower. So are the pay-checks. Oh, I’m sorry: I mean the “labour costs.” Wal-mart uber alles. . .

I have a feeling you and I would have gotten along fine: dueling Intellects, jousting over the subtleties and sophisticated nuances in any situation. Intellectual chess-players. And we both do not suffer incompetence or mediocrity, lightly. . .

Oh, I almost forgot the Eleventh Amendment, that odious product of States’ avoidance of moral duties to their citizens and “persons” within them. For a literalist, you certainly could be “creative” in inserting words that AREN’T there!

I can imagine the rationalizations, even justifications, you made to THAT one! Why enmesh Federal courts in the squabbles between citizens and their State governments. Raiding the State treasury, INDEED! If State governments were private folk, they’d have Tort and Moral Responsibilities, like the rest of us! Why should “our hired help” (Thank you, John Locke and Will Rogers) “get off Scott-free” from their malfeasance??! They should have to pay, like the rest of us. That’s what insurance is for. . .

Innocent citizens’ paying the bill with taxes, you probably rejoined? If they’re innocent, then perhaps they should watch their hired help more closely, and “throw the scoundrels out,” when they’re up to no good. . .

There’s that administrative state gone amok again. The Prussian Model. Did they have massive bureaucracies in 1789? So many problems with representative democracy, so little time to do anything about it! October till July. One hundred-fifty to two hundred cases possible, from THOUSANDS! Then, Separation of Powers gets in the way, doesn’t it? You weren’t a “Super-legislator,” were you? I guess you trusted the Black Uniforms more than I. But then you COULD. The administrative state has damaged rep-democracy.

The Jurisprudence of Certainty. . . How comforting that must have been. . .

But you were the devil-we-knew. At least your distinctions were honest, unlike your buddy Billy, who must have loved to run his fingernails down a blackboard, with intellectual dishonesty, when it suited him, and breaking his garbage compactor, when his anger could not be contained. . . Were you an angry person, too? From whence does that anger come?. . .I suppose the Religion Thing doesn’t cure all ailments. Ah, that’s what christian Stoicism is for. . .Thank the Romans for THAT one. Ah, the construction of religions. If only the believers knew!. . Was hunting your anger-management tool?

What lurks ahead? Does the Shadow know? Do you? How I dread learning curves, in situations like this.

I bid you farewell. Shan’t be reading any more of your tomes, unless harking back to past glories or ignominies. Or Infamies. After all, you were a baby of the Second Campaign. . .

I, too, believe in an After-Life. There are so many folks I want to see again. Ah, Age doth do that to us all, doesn’t it? Perhaps we shall finally meet, rather than only your staring at me from across the bench, probably in disbelief. You made me feel sooo self-conscious! And not even sunglasses, for my protection!

Vale`. And Condolences to the family. And “Thanks” for that Botanical DEBACLE. Sure glad I never had a case, where the opposing lawyer was the son of the judge! Before I let you go, I have a word for you: Recusal. . . Now that The Big Recusal has been imposed upon you. . . The Eyes of The Big Recuser are upon you!. . .

Hello, Hello, to all our loyal readers! Sorry for the delay in posting something new, but we have been busy, with upcoming events for the Law Theater Project!

I have some GREAT news! Our play, Justice Disordered, as produced by one of our collaborative theater groups, this past February, was well received!!! I gave a local critic a copy of the script, and he wrote a WONDERFUL Review, MOST complimentary about the Director, the Cast, and the Playwright!! I spoke with him at the intermission, between our play and the main event, Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, and he was very nice and interested in our Project.

The production, itself, went very well! The Cast came together, in timing, delivery, emotions, at the RIGHT moment! It went so well that I was MORE THAN thrilled! I sent a message of thanks and congratulations to the Director and Cast, even before I saw the Review (which I didn’t find for two weeks, because I got “the flu bug” two days after the performance and was out-of-action for almost two weeks). In my congrats note, though, I asked the Cast and Director, if they’d be up for it, IF I could find a way into the Page-to-Stage Festival, which happens at the Kennedy Center every year, held every Labor Day. A significant number of the Cast and the Director were most interested.

There is great competition to be invited to the Festival, and it has been a platform for other, beginning playwrights, casts, producers, directors, and theater companies. Last year, for example, more than FIFTY theater companies put on productions that ran the gamut of readings through fully rehearsed, costumed productions. It was worth trying, I believed, because, not only had our play done so well this time, but also I’d set as a goal for this year for the Project to put on a production in Page-to-Stage.

After some investigation, thanks to an insider/friend at the Kennedy Center, I found the name of the Director of the Page-to-Stage Festival. So, with the help of one of our great, Cast members, I drafted and sent an application to participate by producing Justice Disordered and two of my short plays. We received a rapid acceptance! Soooooo, we’ll be producing those three plays at the Festival at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts over Labor Day Weekend 2016, actual day, time, and venue, To Be Announced, as soon as we know from the Center!!!!!!!

Another event I shall be attending later this month is the Kennedy Center Arts Summit on 25 April! I’ll be representing our Project, as Executive Director, and hope to meet/network with fellow professionals with the overall theme of “Citizens and the Arts.” Sounds right up our Project’s “alley,” doesn’t it?! The Center is celebrating next year President Kennedy’s Hundredth Birthday. In addition to the Arts Summit, the Center is sponsoring a number of unique programs, such as the Irish Festival this summer and other commemorations. When I was a child, I remember President Kennedy, and all these programs will be a way, to recall him fondly and to dedicate ourselves and younger people to his ideals. I’ll report on the Arts Summit, in this space, After-Action!

Several weeks ago I also conferred with the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, at one of the universities, where I teach graduate students. She seemed receptive to the ideas of our Project, and I am hopeful that our Project will be going forward with planning for a 1- to 2-week, summer program, in 2017.

Besides my own play-writing, those are the things we have been pursuing! Please feel free to be in touch with us, if you want to be involved in any, some, or all of those initiatives! TTFN! Ciao!!!!"