Editor's Notes, Fall 2009

John C. Kuzenski

Thank you for your continued support and patronage of the Pi Sigma Alpha Newsletter. The transition from paper to electronic format is mostly done now, and by that, I mean we have left the former completely behind and are now working off of electronic copies only. While this change has made some aspects of editing much easier-- for example, no longer do I have to obsess over "column inches" or storyboarding or press deadlines for copy-- in other matters it has made editing trickier, or at least presented new challenges at the very least. One of those challenges is working with the online Newsletter's coding so as to ensure, to the greatest possible extent, that each and every story looks right in as many web browsers as possible.  To date, we have done a pretty good job of formatting the Newsletter to be highly compatible with what our usage statistics tell us are overwhelmingly the most-used browsers by our visitors: (1) Internet Explorer (PC) and (2) Mozilla Firefox (PC). If, however, you are on a Mac platform or are using another browser on a PC platform and things just don't always look right, or for that matter if they don't look right even when you use IE or Firefox, please be assured that the Newsletter is still in "building better content" mode, and we are working on solving these issues one at a time, and (hopefully) in an absolutely correct and helpful manner!

If you are having any trouble retrieving content, viewing pictures or in any way comfortably reading the Newsletter, I invite you to let me know by sending an email to the editorial office. I will try to address your concerns as directly and quickly as possible, and send you a reply (or try to provide technical help if the problem may be with your browser settings) as soon as possible as well. Speaking of which, the Newsletter now has an easier, more direct way of contacting the Editor-- of which I'll be the initial beneficiary, but future editors will be able to take advantage of it as well. The new contact email address is username editor at the domain "psanews.org," which I have put in this format in an attempt to foil as many spambots as I can for the time being. Please also remember this address for sending your chapter reports, essay contest entries, photos of local chapter activity and anything else you wish to share with the Newsletter and the Pi Sigma Alpha community at large!

Last but by no means least, and because I love the way the pictures came out on what I thought was a relatively simple little cell phone camera, I thought I'd take a moment to share some of my favorite photos from my last visit to Washington, DC. The trip was on Pi Sigma Alpha-related business, in fact, this past May, as the Executive Committee gathered for its annual summer meeting. I am a curious DC tourist, mainly because while I usually can see things once (or twice) and pretty much have had my fill of them, I seem to have become obsessive about making a pilgrimage to the U.S. Supreme Court building on virtually every visit to the city. I am certain that this tendency stems, in turn, from my adoption of Chief Justice John Marshall as something as close to a "hero and role model" as someone of my jaded age and experiences can conceive; every time I read one of Marshall's opinions, I am re-amazed at the tremendous legal and political tightropes he walked and guided the Court through in its early, critically formative years. The Court, as Alexander Hamilton reminds us in Federalist #78, has neither the "force nor will" of the proactive political branches, but "merely judgment" as the reactive one. That observation is no small part of the reason I remain in awe of Marshall's uncanny ability to address the massive political debates of his day-- which make even the seemingly embittered ones we have seen during the early days of the Obama Administration pale in comparison, in my opinion-- while remaining true to his conviction as a lawyer and a jurist in the necessity of judicial review, and to the concept of the significance of precedent established in English common law.

So here, for what they are worth, are photos of my favorite attraction in Washington-- in fact, some have suggested (correctly) that I treat it as a shrine. From top left (photos below), there is the obligatory photograph of the actual courtroom used by the United States Supreme Court. From there, and from the central Ground Floor of the Supreme Court Building,  is the massive, imposingly impressive statute of Chief Justice Marshall, sitting for the ages in front of the marble wall upon which some of his greatest judicial proclamations are carved. I have discovered that my favorite Marshall quote seems to change from time to time depending on what seems most appropriate to my mode of thinking about the judiciary and law; today, however, the new favorite is clearly from the 1821 case of Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. 264, and not necessarily because it addresses so eloquently that case's subject matter about issues of judicial federalism. It does, however, remind me of the magnificence of free and open debate on issues of public concern that we are guaranteed by our Constitution, and more importantly it reminds me that while disagreeing with someone else's message is my right as an American, it does not therefore follow that this is adequate reason to hate, belittle, harass or demonize the messenger, my countryman (or -woman). I do not always succeed in living that lesson, but struggle my hardest to remember Marshall's wise words when I find myself slipping:

A Constitution is framed for ages to come and is designed to approach immortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it.

Its course cannot always be tranquil.