Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Surprise, Surprise!

In a puzzling show of intelligence and justice, a couple hours ago, the Supreme Court defeated DOMA and cleared the way for marriage for all. I'm cheered and more than a little surprised, and The Untrusting One in my head says there's something else coming. They only did this so what they did before and do after it won't seem so bad. It's an "at least" for the SCOTUS. "At least they sanctioned gay marriage, so they aren't that bad," can now be said. Times are hard when what should be a celebratory moment inspires suspicion in me. Congratulations to all who fought so long and hard for what should be a basic human friggin right- to marry who you want to marry.

And all hats are off to Senator Wendy Davis, who filibustered the Texas abortion restrictive bill for 11 hours, standing and speaking without even a bathroom break. Here's the story, but it's everywhere:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/25/19140887-texas-abortion-bill-fails-to-pass-after-epic-filibuster?

Which goes to show that giving up isn't an option. As much as the bourgeois attitude of having a revolution while playing by rules and not offending anyone sincerely drives me out of my mind, there are ways to make the system work for you. Yes, it means stooping to "their" level. Yes, it means suffering and being victimized. No, it's not what I'll do. But it takes all kinds. I can rest assured that if we all do what we can, things won't go to hell entirely.

Speaking of people doing what they can to change things, I've always admired Mrs. Jane Elliot, who segregated her 3rd grade class in 1972 so they'd know what it was like to be discriminated against:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK759FF84s

Mrs. Elliot is still teaching this, though it was pretty clear to me that white people don't think racism exists anymore and it goes right over their heads, cuz they dismiss it. Racism still exists, it's just changed flavours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAv8JA_9uKI

So the beat goes on. At the moment my friend Cam is on the air with her tribute to Richard Rodgers and Mel Brooks at
http://wvew.org/
You can stream their programming anytime.

There's some fun television to be had- Stephen King's "Under the Dome" has started and there are 12 more parts to come, and "Perception" has returned with a new series for the Summer. Give them a lookie.

Thankfully it's not so damned hot today, still humid, but it's out of the 90s. We had some rain last night, though not nearly the storm that NJ, Maine and others had. I hope everyone gets their power back, the trees off their houses, their cars fixed... this happens all the time now, it seems. Or is it that we hear about everything these days?

Well, I'm off to do some housecleaning, then make a pizza for dinner and meanwhile wait for the HUD inspectors. Haven't seen hide nor hair of them yet...

Run and play- it's Summer!

6 comments:

Geo. said...

We had rain for 3 days, until today. I want it back. Sun baked my brain all day. I'm not a smart man but I know what rain is. Great post, Austan. I will click on links!

Elephant's Child said...

Yay for Senator Wendy. I think we need to clone her, and bring her to rather a lot of places.
And yay (for the moment) for gay marriage being upheld. Perhaps my backward country will start to pay attention. Perhaps.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

What I saw this week was the courage of women and I was so proud of what they did.

sdt (a.k.a. stevil) said...

Oh, it's just so nice that people can now be equal at the Federal level - of course it all depends on whether or not the US state one lives in approves of same sex marriage. The states can still have second class citizens who don't even have to be separate but equal. And most of them do. So explain to me again how it is that that equality is good at the Federal level, but the states can get away with blatant discrimination?

MoonRaven said...

Thanks for posting this.

I think this is an amazing example of fairly rapid social change--five years ago most states were voting in bans on same sex marriage, but by last year four states voted it in--now some conservative Republicans are endorsing it! The Supreme Court was basically pushed into their decision.

This victory really belongs to those who worked so hard for it.

John Going Gently said...

Yaaaaaayyyyyy