Too often, what was once considered legal often isn't viewed as moral or right in modern times.
For example, slavery was legal prior to the Civil War, but criminal afterwards. Ditto the Holocaust. In the eyes of the German state, it was legal but hiding Jews was a crime. And segregation? It was legal but protesting racism was against the law. You get the point.
Here's something I didn't know. Wondering if you did?
Back in 1882, President Chester Arthur signed a law that reshaped America. The Chinese Exclusion Act blocked Chinese workers from coming legally to this country, and blocked Chinese immigrants who already were living here from becoming U.S. citizens. The Library of Congress says it was the “first significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history.”
According to historian Mae Ngai, "Justification for exclusion was that the Chinese were an 'unassimilable' race and therefore could never become Americans. Its rationale – that Asians posed a racial danger to American society – has endured in our politics and culture to this day."
I wonder if lawmakers in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and other states realize that their votes today to restrict abortion or ban books, for example, will one day be considered illegal, immoral or wrong? Put another way, I wonder if they ever will admit they were on the wrong side of history?
-DF