Monday, June 27, 2022

Seeing in the Dark

"I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion." Henry David Thoreau

Why are Thomas & Coney Barrett in love with an interpretation of the Constitution that didn't include them in the proposition of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Why are they so intent upon an interpretation of that document that would see Thomas on an auction block and Comey Barrett stuck in a kitchen somewhere without the franchise?

This Originalism crap seems to me to be a fast-moving slide of hand, a way of stripping people of their rights, their lives and their futures while hiding behind a bunch of lofty sounding legal gibberish that has no real meaning, only an agenda. It seems to me that this particular shell game involves using the Constitution as a bludgeon against the people it was designed to serve. No one will convince me that Jefferson and the boys intended their work to be cast in granite and impervious to the heat and friction of the rushing waves of history and progress.

Thomas and Comey Barrett remind me of the people who collaborated with the Nazis. They are aiding and abetting the creation of a world in which they will have no meaning or value, and hoping for a special dispensation, as the Catholics say, for betraying their fellow citizens.

Perhaps I am getting old and stupid, but it doesn't make any sense to me, unless the object is to create a theocracy - one of the most brutal forms of tyranny. The divine right of rulers for the rich, and the obligation to suffer and serve for everyone else because hell is waiting for those who don't accept the tenants of the "faith." In such a world Christ would carry an automatic weapon, and compassion would be strictly forbidden, by law or scripture whichever came first.

I am not a particularly cheerful person as most of you know. I am not a glass half full type of dame. No, I see extremely well in the dark, and its real hard to slip a shadow past me.

The five Conservative people on this bloody Supreme Court are casting a shadow of tyranny over the American people. Their regressive interpretation of the law will take us all back to a world where most of us weren't welcome.

In the short-term defiance of their directives is a moral imperative. In the long-term checking their power with term limits and an expansion of the court must be a prime demand on our elected officials.  In short, they need to be made irrelevant, because they have undermined their own credibility to such a point as to not deserve the respect or obedience of the American people.

This is the year to pay attention. This is the year to put down your Botox, your beer and forget whatever the hell your favorite reality TV stars are up to. This is the year to begin a house cleaning that will put power back in the hands of the majority where it belongs.







Friday, June 24, 2022

Phony Chirstians, Lying Politicians and Power Junkies

 

Like so many other people, men and women, I am devastated today. I went out to my garden to work for a while. It too is devastated by heat and the predictable increase in the insect population which accompanies heat.

For the first time this season I took comfort in my garden. You see, no power on earth can stop the rose refusing to reproduce - bloom - in extreme heat. They are shutting down now, for the most part, until the summer moves into fall and the weather cools down. No power on earth can force them to expose tender flowering tissue to the burning sun.

No power on earth can force a shade plant to grow in the sun or a sun loving plant to flourish in the shade. No power on earth can force Xeric plants to accept the same amount of water as the rose and live well.

No power on earth can meddle with the balance of nature in a sustainable way. We have tried in our arrogance, ignorance and greed. The outcome of this has been the destruction of our climate. There isn't a gardener or a farmer in this world that doesn't see the damage that has been done every day.

The meddling that has been done today, by the Supreme Court and states that have been waiting for the opportunity to meddle in the lives of women, and yes men too, will lead to the same kind of destruction as our meddling with nature. Women will die. Families will grieve. Unwanted children will be brought into the world to live in the shade of poverty or the burning heat of neglect. This so called moral, Christian nation won’t give a damn any more than they did in the past or do now, come to that.

There is nothing good about what was done today, nothing moral or righteous. It is the purest form of hubris, of religious bigotry and conceit. Clearly it is the result of the tyranny of the minority.

Every time we failed to vote, every time apathy took the place of commitment, we built the momentum for today's decision. Every time we failed to challenge some duplicitous hump who swore that abortion kills but guns don’t, every time we failed to question the idea that anyone serves for life in a democratic republic, on a court or in public office, we bit off a piece of this nightmare.

I started gardening some sixty years ago. I fought for Roe some fifty years ago. I continue to garden, heat, insects and climate change notwithstanding. I will continue to fight for any woman’s right to control her own life, body and destiny, phony Christians, lying politicians and power junkies notwithstanding.