That said, if things in the United Shapes of Unmerica keep going the way they've been going for - oh, let's say 18 months - you can bet the thoughts expressed here will be plenty off-putting if you don't like words with "u-c-k" in them.
Uck. Does that describe the feeling in your stomach right now? Then you may read on.
I was having a lovely catch-up-because-I-gave-up-Facebook (thanks for ruining it for us, Douchebag Zuckerberg) lunch today when the latest blow to my warped, flapping-in-the-breeze Veneer of Hope hit the proverbial redzone. (Okay...redzones have never made it to proverbs, but I'm not changing the sentence. Because. Redzone sounds alarming.)
Justice Kennedy.
Retiring.
Score another point for What-The-F#@%ery.(You're welcome, Innocent Eyes.)
Why?
Why now?
Why, why, why is this happening when Donald J. Trump is the chooser? Oh for the love of anything you can think of that is good today...WHY?
Was it because the 30-year veteran of the court somehow heard me - ME: a by-the-book bleeding- heart-liberal - praise him JUST YESTERDAY for being an example of the judicial at work without the mandate of politics? I don't even have an Echo in my house. I zip my phone inside my purse if I'm fighting with my husband. (Still, we have a long held belief around here that we've been heard without our knowing. That dates back to when Thirtysomething was a show. So...very, very long held. Google it.) This means I've been wondering all afternoon - Would it hurt Justice Kennedy's heart too much to find out someone like me had a nice word to say about him?
I'd regurgitate some of the real news regarding the answer to the question of why Justice Kennedy has decided to take a powder on America if I could make myself go read any of it. But I can't. Reading news today is just more than I can bear. Dear god...on the heels of children crying for their parents in detention centers/SCOTUS on cakes/SCOTUS on travel bans? Reading the news today is like being hit in the face with a 2x4 when you already have a broken nose. Like bumping that scabbed spot on your elbow every time you unload the dishwasher. Like slamming your pinky toe into the leg of the bed for the millionth time. Like getting the flu when you already have novovirus. It could happen...but who would volunteer for that? I can't make myself click on the AP or Reuters app on my tablet. I. Just. Can't.
I did manage to take a Wiki glance at Kennedy's bio, though, which I had to do because I've not been much of a fangirl up to now. The exception, of course - the one I referenced in that infamous convo yesterday - was his beautiful 2015 opinion on love. It's so great, I'm not even going to leave it to chance that you'll click on a hyperlink and read it. Here it is:
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
I suppose begrudging an 81-year old man the right to retire is unChristian or something. Maybe he'd like to throw a ball with a grandkid before he dies, or hear a summer concert in the mountains, or live a few hundred days without worrying about how to be just in a country whose Commander in Grief believes justice means money in his personal bank account.
There is only one thing I think I know this afternoon:
Everything I care about in America is on the line.
- A woman's right to choose
- Voting rights
- Civil rights
- Worker's rights
- Big money in politics
- LGBTQ equality
- Due process for asylum seeking immigrants
- Protection for people of all races, religions, sexual orientation
I pray chocolate never becomes a political pawn.
Mostly, in these fallen moments today, I realize again that I'm mad as all hell at everyone who thought they'd sit out the 2016 election because Hillary Clinton just got on their nerves.
I fear it's time to tell you all the truth - that was fucking stupid.
The Bossy Big Sis has spoken.
The proposed intent of this blog...going forward...will be to give solicited/unsolicited advice to people I know/don't know/wish I knew. I might be suggesting my neighbor plant pansies in that pot by the front door...or that David Letterman trim his beard...or that waffles for dinner make a really fun party.
I also might tell you to get off your ass and make the world a better place.
What else are we effin' here for?
See you next time. -BBS
