Dark Day

Warning: my ongoing policy is to delete disagreeable comments at my whim. Post opposing views on your own blog, and I will do you the favor of ignoring them. Thanks!

Like most people I know, I’m appalled at today’s SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. While pregnancy is no longer a concern for me personally, I am outraged on behalf of all the US women and girls who will now be told they don’t have the right to choose. I’m not smug about living in a deep blue, pro-choice state either, as the tide can change in that regard. Plus I do care about the rest of the country, not just myself and my immediate bubble. It’s also a fact that lack of access to healthcare will burden poor women disproportionately, so it’s even more upsetting when viewed through that lens.

I’m disgusted about a lot of factors leading up to this, including all the voters who turned up their noses at HRC in 2016, from the purity left to the right to the ridiculously huge percentage of citizens who can’t be bothered to vote at all. I’m disgusted with the Senators who believed the rightwing justices when they said (under oath) that Roe was “settled law.” Now those Senators are “concerned” because they were lied to. Idiots! Some say it was all a farce and those Senators knew exactly what they were doing. Perhaps so.

I’m worried about what’s next as well. Some hope that Obergefell v. Hodges (the right for same-sex couples to wed, 2015) gets knocked down, and I can easily imagine it will. It’s a newer ruling, so there’s no need for anyone to pretend it’s precedent. There’s enormous anti-gay sentiment around the country, even here in California, so you know such a thing would be widely cheered by haters. Again, this doesn’t affect me personally, but why should I not care about others?

It may be harder for SCOTUS to dismantle some of the older rulings, such as Griswold v. Connecticut (the right for married couples to obtain and use birth control, 1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (the right for unmarried people to obtain and use birth control, 1972), but I have a feeling they will try. How about Loving v. Virginia (striking down bans on interracial marriage, 1967) or Brown v. Board of Education (the desegregation of schools, 1954) or any of the other Civil Rights Acts? Would Thomas oppose dumping those? Who knows!

Unlike some peeps, I don’t spend much time obsessing over you-know-who because I view him as more of a symptom than a problem ~ though of course he will become a problem if he wins the POTUS seat again, but so will any Republican. Even the ones who (lightly) criticize him still support the same policies, which are fueled by the underlying American diseases of racism, misogyny, and homophobia. These issues existed before his unfortunate presidency and will persist long after he’s gone from the scene.

Today is a dark day and I believe there are many more to come.

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