Photo credit: Amy Harvey
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.
Here’s my list of important things to begin the conversations in our communities:
- Roe v. Wade & The Leaked Documents
- ACLU Emergency Town Hall on Roe v. Wade
- The Criminalization of Menstrual Periods and Privacy Rights
- June 7, 2022 Primary Election
- Voter’s Choice Act (VCA)
- Lead The Way Legislation
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
e·gre·gious
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:
Information Source: Center for Reproductive Rights
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
The Voice of the Voiceless 