So Much To Write...

There are so many things to write about that it is hard for me to pick and choose this time around.  So, I decided to just start writing and let the thoughts sort of flow. 

This past week we celebrated, with great joy, the marriage of one of our daughters to her partner of 18 years.  It was pretty much of a “hurry up” affair because they wanted to get married before the Prop 8 people churned things up again in California.  In fact, the County Clerk of San Diego County filed to appeal the overturning of Prop 8, again, but the courts rejected the appeal just last week.  Although when Prop 8 passed, it was with the support of both the Catholic and Mormon churches.  I can’t speak at all for the Mormon Church, but I think the Catholic Bishops who supported Prop 8 did so, among many reasons, based on false information, which is no excuse for anyone in a position such as theirs.  They should have investigated further the allegation that the churches would be “required” to perform same-sex marriages.  Of course, no such thing was the case simply because it would violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution.  The state cannot order any church to perform any rite.  There is a separation of church and state, to the benefit of both.  But with the state of politics in this nation at this time, our daughter and her partner figured they had better get married while they had the chance.   

While we were celebrating and recuperating, we did keep up with the news, which included the Filner, Spitzer and Weiner circumstances.  If you are not acquainted with Bob Filner, Mayor of San Diego, google it.  It is disgusting, and I don’t want to waste time on it here.  There was the usual mantra from the radical right about how Democrats are so immoral, always having affairs, etc.  When that started it reminded me of a quip I had made up years ago.  “When the Democrats screw someone, it is usually one person at a time.  When the Republicans do it, it is the whole damn country”!  

To prove this point, think about what has been going on in states that are controlled by these new Republicans.  After the Republican Supreme Court knocked down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 recently, these Republican controlled states have passed stringent voter suppression laws against minorities, seniors, students and poor people.  They have voted to do away with women’s health clinics because they also provide abortions.  These are the same states that are refusing to accept the Affordable Health Care Act which will fund Medicaid in their states so that poor women now will have less access to mammograms, cervix and uterine cancer screening, diabetes screening, and other health care needs.  Although the attacks are aimed primarily at women, because Medicaid will be cut back, poor men will lose access to health care as well, although not as stringently as women.  The worst attack against the people of this country is the Republican threat to either de-fund the Affordable Health Care Act, or they will shut down the government, after failing to repeal it 39 times, with the 40^th due this next week.  (Does this mean they are insane, since one of the definitions of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result?) 

Let’s see.  There are actions now against people of color, poor seniors, students, all poor hungry people, and women.  By golly, they are screwing the whole damn country.  Sometimes I hate it when I am right.