Wait! Hold up world! My Tumblr and Facebook is blowing up today with--What the heck just happened?
Thank you Jaclyn for the update. I always appreciate your logic. You're a ray of sunshine in the foreboding storm.
Literally, it is storming and thundering outside as I learn of this plainly ridiculous judicial decision by our lovely champions of chauvinist justice, as if to say "Beware, this is just the beginning of the assault on human rights."
Luckily, I don't believe in signs, or destiny, or prophesy, or God, or that businesses are now humans (seriously, I thought these people didn't believe in evolution). Nonetheless I am sadly shaking my head that, at this moment in time, freedom of belief is still being legally and triumphantly trampled on by the Christian faith in this country. It irks me that people, even supposedly educated people, still don't understand that the idea of separation between church and state also implies a separation of church and businesses. And it really depresses me that in our modern world, the male-dominated government still presumes to control women's bodies.
That's right--this decision by the supreme court was made by a conservative male majority, proving that even the highest judicial branch of this country is more concerned with controlling a woman's sexual choices than in protecting the first amendment rights of the nation. This pitifully sexist standard--the obsession with limiting female sexuality and censoring the female body--has been played out time and time again in various branches of the government. I suppose its not surprising considering the representation we have in political office. There are only three female justices on the supreme court, we've never even had a female president, and female representation in congress is less than 20 percent.
But that doesn't excuse the discrimination at work by the men in power. And men may shout, "not all men..." but the statistics seem to speak for themselves. Apparently, when a male majority makes all the decisions, this is what we can expect; Viagra and longer-lasting functional penises: Yes, please. IUDs and female health: No, thank you.
And so Jaclyn Glenn makes a great point--if you don't get out and vote on the issues, at the national level and locally, every bit of debate and advocacy you participate in is much more of a spiritual exercise--a prayer--than real progress.And yes, guys I know it really isn't all men, but really, its much more than you would think--way more than it should be.
But beyond the issue of sexism in government, the supreme court isn't even upholding the first amendment of our constitution with this decision. Freedom of religion implies that we also have freedom from religion, and the supreme court has now cemented it into our law that this is not so.
I remember two years ago my community college professor of Political Science 101 trying to drill into us that economics was the MAIN SUBJECT MATTER of politics. In fact, I'll never forget it, because he made me hungry with how much he liked to talk about the economy in terms of cookies; And I'll always remember economics--simply and deliciously--as the distribution of cookies in society, and politics as those who pass out those cookies.
It's an extremely simplistic analogy, but it drives the point home that the need for an organized allocation of values and resources is the reason we have created government in the first place. And to me, if we are to have separation of church and state in government, it begins with separation of church and firm in the economy--the main subject matter of politics. There is no way Christianity should be able to use businesses to impose its irrational set of morals on society And let's make no mistake, as much as this is a sexist perversion of justice, it is much more of a religious one.
No matter how you look at it, however, its totally messed up.
Next week hopefully I can move on to a lighter subject. Like I said, I've been wanting to write about relationships for a while now and this was going to be "relationship month" for me. Lucky for me, my title still kinda holds up. I guess perhaps its not the best title for this particular blog and topic, but what the hell, it gets the point across pretty well. Sorry if I offended anyone. I of all people know that a penis does not necessarily make a man--or a woman for that matter. I'll explain a little more as the month continues, but as of the 1st, I've had enough politics for one month. Its gotten me pretty fired up. All I want now is some cookies.