History just continues to repeat itself, which is not a good thing. Shall I continue?
Make it make sense…
In Community and Solidarity,
Amy
The world is moving so fast that people have forgotten what we began with when it came to core values, morals, and ethics. I have always found it hard to find people who will not lie and whose goal is not to be deceptive. That sounds terrible, right? Well, I will add to that. Intentions. Intentions can be deceptive and real (truthful).
When I meet someone, I try to always figure out their intent of approaching me, talking to me, and trying to be in my life. I feel that if you look at a person’s intention that it is easier to tell what their end-game will be.
Let’s apply this theory to non-personal situations (that is, situations that happen in everyday life for everyone, not just yourself).
The Scenario
You are in the market to buy another vehicle because yours is on the fritz. You cannot afford a new one, but there are some used cars that you have been scoping out in newspaper advertisements and by “window-shopping” the classifieds online. You find the dream car, you hope, and you make an appointment to test drive the vehicle. Upon arrival, the dealer that is selling the car power washes the engine and does many other things that would look like the car was being beautified.
What do you think the intention of the used car dealer is?
This is a real scenario for me, and I had this happen to me when I got my Dodge Charger. It could happen to anyone, but I think that the dealer was trying to cover up an oil leak and in doing so caused electrical problems with my car.
Do you think the dealer’s intent was to hide a mechanical problem, or do you think that the dealer was trying to actually make the car look pretty for my arrival?
If washing the engine was to hide the mechanical problem, it was deceitful and a lie.
If I have a mechanical problem after the purchase because of the engine being washed, it’s a mistake.
If the dealer had no idea if the mechanical problem existed and washed the engine, it was not bad intent, and if the dealer had no idea the washing of the engine would cause issues, the intent was not in bad favor either.
The reason I am writing this post is because truthfulness is hidden in this world. You never know when someone is lying or telling the truth. I think that we live in a world of deceptiveness and dishonesty. There is no honor, loyalty, honesty, and patience in this fucked up world. It’s just lies, oppression, dishonesty, upheaval, unrest, and all the other words you could apply to a world with a failing democracy and failing morals and ethics.
People that are supposed to be transparent are too busy covering up their lies and deceit. Radical measures to control people is the number one goal of our government. If you speak the truth in this era, it will get a target put on your back. There are too many gray hazy areas. There are too many hidden intentions. There are too many people searching for power and control.
All I can ask is, “Why?” Why are we like this? Do we have core values anymore, or has deceit become the national standard of life in this country? Is oppression worth more than peace?
Sadly, I do not know anyone who can answer these questions. I live in a world of distrust.
We have to do better to be better, folks.
In Community,
Amy
Please be sure to read this post shared by The Poetry Bar by the author Geoffrey Reilly. His site is called Bending The Needle – Truth Hurts.
It is now becoming a common consensus (since the leaked draft) that we are approaching what The Handmaid’s Tale was edging toward in theory. We have turned into a country that has no voice unless you are the societal norm of a radical white conservative male.
This poem emphasizes that (and more) very thoroughly.
Religious fanatics in red caps and black robesChoice Appomattox and transvaginal probesBeaten and raped, then told what to doStripped of your voice, no autonomous you Back-alley midwives with buckets and hangersForced into action, like fierce Margret SangersMatt K and Sam A, don’t care what you thinkJudge Thomas and Barrett drown Roe in the sink Ejaculate…
Religious Fanatics in Red Caps and Black Robes — LUNA
My good friend, Jill, always has a way to express the things I am thinking about. As American people, we should fear that super-precedents are being put on a chopping block, and we should also fear that we do not accept difference is people, views, religious preference, and anything else that is away from radical conservative norms. We have had so much change for the worse in this country. The oppression will continue because only certain voices are heard.
In Community,
Amy
P.S. Please be sure to read the full article on Jill’s site.
In countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and many others, one man or group of men (it’s always men, never women) control the people, their actions & behaviours. But in a democracy, a true democracy, it is the voice of the majority that determines the laws of the land. The United States was founded as […]
I Thought We Were Better … — Filosofa’s Word
This post by Fandango is a must-read article about the Electoral College and its effects on the Roe draft that I have been talking about. He highlights some very important information. It’s very important that we, as citizens, try to begin fixing what our lack of participation in the countries biggest issues has caused.
Silence is violence…our voices are mandatory!
In Community,
Amy
Yes, I’m still angry about the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court that points to a decision by the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade with respect to legal abortions in the United States. That decision is likely to be supported by all of the conservative justices in either a 6-3 decision or, if Chief Justice John Roberts decides to vote against making abortions illegal, by a 5-4 decision.
As you think about the ramifications of this decision, it is worth remembering something. The office of the President of the United States is the only political office in the land that is not decided by the popular vote. The vehicle that determines who wins a presidential election is the Electoral College, an antiquated and antidemocratic part of the U.S. Constitution.
The Electoral College was created for two reasons. The first purpose was to create a buffer between the population…
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Today has been productive in the aspect that I have continued on in my job search, and I did some other tasks that needed to get done. However, I think the job with the city has passed me by. I should have heard something yesterday or today, according to the director. Hence, this was why I was on a vigorous job search.
I looked professional, answered all my questions to the best of my ability, and everything else you are supposed to do in a job interview, but when it comes down to it, I am not strong with interviews. I get too nervous.
With that being said, I think I need to build those skills and focus my concentration on nailing a job interview. I know how to do the jobs I am applying for, but I suck at talking about myself.
Well, that’s enough of that…let’s talk about something that more important and bigger than little ole’ me.
The first topic is the most important one. If you have not read the leaked decision from SCOTUS, you can find it HERE on Politico. For my stance about Roe v. Wade, you can click HERE.
The first point that I want to point out is that this decision being leaked is going to be part of a bigger problem for other precedent-setting decisions and for other protections of the Constitution, like due process, privacy, government invasion, and more…While right now it is only a draft, it would take a miracle to change the minds of Supreme Court Justices that already knew they were going to overturn Roe before their appointment. *cough* (Amy Coney-Barrett is top on this list of problem justices.)
The Planned Parenthood v. Casey will be under attack along with Roe v. Wade because Casey reaffirmed Roe. In Casey, the question was whether a married woman had to tell her husband before they underwent an abortion.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start…” and “…We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled…”
Justice Samuel Alito
1.outstandingly bad; shocking.
Lexico via Google
Those statements, folks, are pretty bold and radically conservative statements to say against a decision that has survived for nearly 50 years in this country.
He makes many more “egregious” statements, but let’s look at an even scarier statement:
“First, we explain the standard that our cases have used in determining whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s reference to “liberty” protects a particular right.”
Justice Samuel Alito
Seriously? Does he know the meaning of the word “liberty” at all? I wanted to be sure we all do, so I looked it up to share with you all. Britannica says that liberty is, “a state of freedom, especially as opposed to political subjection, imprisonment, or slavery.“
There are some key words and phrases in there, like freedom and political subjection. Let’s define those words too…
Freedom, according to Lexico, is “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.”
Political subjection will be a little more obvious. Lexico defines subjection as, “The action of subjecting a country or person to one’s control, or the fact of being subjected.” Then, political would obviously mean pertaining to politics if you know the prefix and suffix rule of -al meaning pertaining to.
POLITICAL CONTROL, people!
What will be the next thing that Justice Alito and his other cohorts fail to see as liberty or constitutional? What more does the government want to control? Will the NSA be able to track women to abortion clinics via cell phones and apps that steal our data? Will they get access to our medical records and criminalize irregular periods? Will HIPAA disappear for women and other genders in its entirety? With due process being a huge part of Roe, will you have a right to the protections of the 14th Amendment if you are a woman or other gender identity?
Those are questions that people do not realize are aligned with the Roe and Casey decisions. They make my stomach turn over because people are not taking these into account when they think about Roe.
Maybe this context from his opinion will resonate better than my words:
“One possibility was that the right was “founded .. . in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people.” Another was that the right was rooted in the First, Fourth, or Fifth Amendment, or in some combination of those provisions, and that this right had been “incorporated” into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment just as many other Bill of Rights provisions had by then been incorporated.”
Supreme Court Justice Alito
That is a lot of amendments to address in a short amount of time that he is saying were roots and incorporations into the Bill of Rights. He is not shy about how he feels about it. (Page 9 of the leaked document)
“Incorporated” is the word he uses on the protections of the Bill of Rights…in general and passive aggressively at the same time.
Long story short, the madness will not stop at Roe v. Wade. It will not stop at women’s rights, reproductive and otherwise. Think of all the things that the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments protect, and then add the entire Bill of Rights and the actual and entire Constitution…
I will end with the ACLU Emergency Town Hall. It was at 12:30 PM PST on 5/5/2022, and some great people came together to talk about forcing women to stay pregnant against their will if Roe v. Wade was overturned. They talked about coming together as a community to have a stronger voice than those with opposition to abortion, since they are ultimately why Roe v. Wade is in trouble.
Silence is violence, folks!
I would urge you to go to take the pledge that you support reproductive freedom by going to http://aclu.org/abortion-pledge.
Here is a map of over half of the United States considered “Hostile” on the subject of abortion:
If you need help getting in touch with your local ACLU or Reproductive Freedom Coalition, please reach out! I will help you find it!
If you are being criminalized for exercising your right to get an abortion, please reach out to your local ACLU or Reproductive Freedom organizations.
Click HERE for more information from ACLU concerning Roe v. Wade and forced pregnancy.
Click HERE for the surveillance OpEd about tracking students via public school computers and tracking those that seek out abortion clinics with applications on their cell phone and social media platforms. Scary stuff, folks.
That is all I have for tonight…I will continue with the other numbers on my list tomorrow evening.
In Community,
Amy
Tonight, my sister and I were watching a show when our phones lit up with breaking news about a leaked document that is showing that Roe v. Wade is in huge trouble. My heart literally dropped into my stomach. A case that was established in 1973 when the world was even more against women than it is now, ruled that women had control over their reproductive rights. These same rights are about to be stepped on by old, conservative lawmakers.
First, I want to talk about my personal opinions on abortion, birth control, and a woman’s right to become pregnant. I am pro-woman. I believe that a woman has a right to her own reproductive freedom and complete control over anything that affects her body or person.
I would never be able to make that decision to have an abortion out of personal choice, but that does not mean that I have the right to take that away from someone else. I support them and their choice. It’s easy for me to support these choices that other women choose to partake in because government intrusion on someone’s body is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
Birth control to prevent pregnancy are important, and in contrast the use of untraditional methods to get pregnant are also important. I support these choices too.
Now that you have my clear stance on reproductive freedom, let’s talk about how Roe v. Wade became precedent in the first place. I want to start with this quote in the syllabus of the case because there is HUGE importance in it.
“A person may choose to have an abortion until a fetus becomes viable, based on the right to privacy contained in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Viability means the ability to live outside the womb, which usually happens between 24 and 28 weeks after conception.”
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
I bolded the words above that say, “Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” in this holding because this decision being overturned will set women’s right back 50+ years and challenges our Due Process rights under the Constitution.
A government entity, or better yet in current times…entities, are telling a woman when she is allowed to end a pregnancy. Roe was a single, pregnant women, and she wanted to end her pregnancy via abortion with a safe doctor. It was hard to find a safe doctor to perform these procedures due to them being considered illegal.
Before Roe was passed, women were going to back alley abortion “doctors”, if you want to call them that, to get their pregnancies ended, and they ended up most times with sepsis from dirty instruments and some even died. I will add more to this section as I get more statistics, but taking abortions away as an option is dangerous.
That’s a scary thought that we could go back to these kind of abortions because the world wants to infringe on someone’s right through courts and laws. If that is not scary enough, you will be scratching your chin and really thinking on the next worry of this decision being overturned…
If you are not familiar with the 14th Amendment, it states:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.“
The Constitution of the United States, 14th Amendment
There are two forms of due process. One is procedural and the other is substantive. According to Cornell Law, “Substantive due process has been interpreted to include things such as the right to work in an ordinary kind of job, marry, and to raise one’s children as a parent” (Legal Information Institute, 2022).
Procedural is the regular process that we think of when going to court and getting in front of a judge, etc. after charges have been filed against us.
Both of these are substantial to freedoms granted by our Constitution in both the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, just to name a few. Now, let’s look back at the wording of the case syllabus in Roe v. Wade. In the primary holding, it speaks of the due process clause that is in the 14th Amendment. Are you ready for the scary part?
ANY and EVERY case that set precedent that has been decided under the Due Process Clause will now be challenged.
This is not a scare tactic. It is in the verbiage of overturning a precedent that was set in 1973! Things are going to get ugly folks! For women, you might as well say Margaret Atwood’s book called The Handmaid’s Tale will come true. It’s radical just like that series portrays when the Roe decision is overturned. (If you have never watched the series, you may want to…or at least read the book.)
A real time example is that women in Texas are going to Oklahoma to get abortions, so Oklahoma passed an abortion ban. I think Alabama was the first I heard about to do put strict restrictions, and from what the document sounds like in the article from Reuters, the Supreme Court is going to put it in the hands of state lawmakers on making the choice whether it will be illegal in their states. It’s sickening to me.
I know there is more that I wanted to say, but my heart just became really heavy thinking about the damage that has been done to this country. It’s hard to be proud to live in a place that has the highest incarceration rate, wrongful conviction rate, and that oppresses the rights of others in the name of law and order. For those that want to say, “Leave then if you don’t like it here…”, the only words I have for you is “I stay to fight you for those that have no voice.”
I will end with this… Silence is violence. If you are not an ally, you are an adversary.
Works Cited:
Legal Information Institute. 2022. “Due Process”. Cornell Law, WEX. Retrieved from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/due_process.
The Voice of the Voiceless 