Legal.

Remember Darth Sidious' manipulations in The Phantom Menace etc?  Slowly, secretly, behind the scenes, he manipulated policies and suborned people and laws to his benefit, all for control.  Sound familiar?

He was cautioned that certain things weren't legal in the Republic.  ''I'll make it legal'', he said as he wended his way to power.

Funny thing that one of my daily dictionary words today is allege.  Commonly used today, it implies that something hasn't been proven, even though it has occurred.  For 'legal' reasons, it must be processed in a court of 'law'.  It used to mean someone offering proof in support of a plea.  There is truth and there is legal truth.

Rule of law implies Constitutionally established  procedure.  Rule of men implies the almost whimsical attitude undermining the former.  ''Well it's the law'' is the excuse for many abuses.  And without the Constitutional checks and balances, whatever someone in temporary control says goes.  Witness the current impeachment process.  They say one thing and do another.

The specter of the distorted faces of traitors pop up and file past my mind.  They don't predominate, but they do create distaste.  These are the perpetrators of sedition and treason.  It has always been so.  Let them be a reminder that Freedom isn't free.  We must always fight to preserve it.

As Crockett said in The Alamo 1960, ''There's right and there's wrong.  You gotta do one or the other.  You do the one and you're living.  You do the other and you may be walkin' around, but you're dead as a beaver hat.''

So that might explain why it seems that we get down to the wire, to the edge of desperation.

We are fast coming to extinction or redemption.

Best to remember legal is not moral.