One Step Forward for American Theocracy, One Giant Leap Backwards for Womankind

Interesting article in this month's Smithsonian about women and divorce, especially interesting in light of the long awaited release of the Supreme Court ruling, or should I say dismantling, of the precedent of Roe V Wade.

The article details one woman in particular, and all women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who found themselves in a marriage that did not work for them.  Although she lived on Manhattan Island in New York, this particular woman, Blanche Molineaux, had traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to seek a divorce.  

During this period, ending a divorce depended on where you lived, as the concept was legislated at the state level, and was strictly limited to residents of each state.  In 1902 when this story takes place, South Dakota had one of the least restrictive resident requirements before one could divorce under its laws, six months.  And Sioux Falls, located at the eastern side of South Dakota, and served by multiple train lines, became a desired location for woman seeking to divorce their husbands. 

While this may sound a bit far-fetched, women traveling thousands of miles to exercise what we today would consider a basic right, to be able to choose whom to love and marry, during America's first century woman were legally treated pretty much as property, so a woman divorcing a man was akin to a couch seeking a divorce from its owner.  

At this point, the story gets sensationalized, because it turns out that Blanche's husband is not only unloved by Blanche, but is a murderer to boot, twice over.  Blanche herself was no shrinking violet either, as one of the victims of Mr Molineaux was her alleged lover, but despite his actions, murder was not a legal reason to seek divorce in New York, only adultery, and only if committed by the husband.

Blanche did in fact, gain her divorce, did remarry, and in fact divorced her second husband as well.  Like many stories of those who choose to act outside the prevalent norms of society, her's allows us to wonder at the backwardness of past perceptions, and feel happy that no such laws and taboos exist today that would prevent an entire gender from seeking life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as one such famous declaration stated.

Until this week, that is, with the recent decision by the Supreme Court.  Positing that abortion is not "deeply rooted in the Nation's history and tradition", Justice Alito, along with the four other justices who prefer a 19th century America to a 21st century one, have, for the first time in our history, negated a right which had been granted.

While I am sickened by this decision, Alito is correct in one aspect.  There is no deep rooted history and tradition of treating women as equal to men, just as there is no deep rooted history and tradition of treating black people as equal, and certainly no deep rooted history and tradition of treating the LGBTQ population as equal.  While I can understand why the four men voted to legalize 2nd class status to women, it seems astonishing that a woman would agree.  It makes me think that Justice Coney Barett may one day be perceived on par with Benedict Arnold, in this case for betraying her gender rather than country.  

As for Justice Thomas, well, we had our chance to block him from appointment when Anita Hill revealed his true nature.  Sadly, as with Brett Kavanaugh's hearing, woman are, at best, not believed, at worse, treated with disdain by those who relish in the thought that they can do whatever they want to women (see Donald Trump) as long as they remain in good standing and abide in the unstated rules of the rich, (and generally) white-men-who-have-ruled-America-forever club.  

What alarms me just as much as this apparent return to men-will-be- men attitude, and too bad for women who are now mandated to carry an unwanted child, no extra laws have been passed requiring paternity to be established at birth, and, at least, financial assistance be provided by the male in question. What is worse is the knowledge that the five justices who agreed with Alito's outrageous opinion, are all Catholic (or raised Catholic as was Justice Gorsuch).  Only John Roberts, also Catholic, was able to separate his faith from his adherence to the law (sort of like the separation of church and state, which sounds familiar in reference to our founders). 

In other words, we are moving towards a theocracy.  Now, don't get me wrong, a theocracy is better than an autocracy, in that at least with a theocracy we know the rules Catholics follow, where in an autocracy, who knows what wild hair will effect Trump when he rolls over his empty fast food containers and out of bed.

True, gay marriage is out.  As are any laws allowing people to express any type of gender identity that scares the pope and his male cohorts.  Interracial marriage, perhaps not in those Nazi states where white nationalism still holds sway. Sex education, no way. In fact, even birth control, other than those two famously effective methods of penis withdrawal before ejaculation and the rhythm method, would become law, although, strangely, the declining enrollment of children in parochial schools in the last 40 years might indicate that most Catholics already stopped obeying that "law". Fortunately for the meat industry, that whole no meat on Friday during Lent rule was allowed to go by the wayside.  

But with an autocracy, all bets are off.  Morals, norms, laws, equal treatment, all those ideas that represent our idealized (if not realized) version of American democracy, would be totally dependent on the whims of the not elected leader.  Free press, forget it.  Fair elections, yea, fair when the dictator wins.  

As a side note, I saw that among other crazy notions, the Texas GOP's recently released platform calls for the 10 Commandments to be taught in schools again.  I wonder if any of those Christian delegates have actually read those commandments lately.  While teaching moral lessons is certainly a good idea, I wonder if they realize that replacing the rule of law with the rule of their god, sounds a bit like the Taliban's belief that sharia law should be enshrined in government.

So, what is to be done?  Sadly, we are now embarking on at least a decade of legalized, unequal treatment of millions of women in America.  I say a decade because, once abortion is made illegal even in those states that allow an exception for rape, incest and the medical necessity to save the mother, it will take quite some time for women to regain their right to choose, especially in states that are red as blood.  

A decade, at least, because it will take women to vote as a bloc to regain their status as equal to men, and there are far too many women today that are either nonchalant about the right to choose, perhaps never having faced an unwanted pregnancy, or too brain washed by their particular strain of religious thinking in which women should be, first and foremost, a vessel for children, wanted or not.  In other words, it will take the gradual changeover of women voters (and men, to a degree) due to the young becoming eligible voters and the old passing to another realm. 

In the meantime, the Biden Administration must guarantee that no state may prevent women from their state to seek an abortion in another state.  Also, if there is a way that the medications that are available to induce an abortion can still be mailed within those states that have banned it, that process should be pursued.  Perhaps in states where the legislature bans abortion but the governor still respects the right to choose.  And, to expose the hypocrisy, all pro choice candidates must push for equal responsibility laws for mandated pregnancies, so that the burden does not fall on women alone.

One last caution.  In the above paragraphs, I joke about theocracy being better than an autocracy, but the the real joke is thinking we will have a choice between the two.  Power is power, and those who seek it, above all, will not care what guise their power comes from, far right religious beliefs, white nationalism, anti-whatever-makes people-vote-for-me, or just plain lies and distortions.  

Democracy, Virginia, is not our birthright, not divinely inspired, not the inevitable result of our evolving nature towards fairness.  It is hard work, attention to details, and the ongoing battle to throw off the shackles of our past prejudices, while moving towards a day when we don't need laws to guarantee equal treatment, we just know it in our hearts and our heads, despite our religion, gender, race or origin.

The Universal Guild

                                   The Universal Guild

As had been agreed upon through the last great treaty of those advanced beings who resided in Galaxy Seven, the half century evaluations were in process.  

The ships had been dispatched months ago although the use of the word ships was solely a nod to the past, a respectful recognition that vehicles for space travel had evolved from the time when exploration to worlds beyond one's own boundaries, meant navigating with vessels of wood and metal across vast oceans of water.  And so, in deference to those days, craft which now roamed the universe, continued to be called ships by many, even though they were more akin to advanced computers than ships. 

It had taken much cooperation, after much violence and bloodshed, for the peoples of Galaxy Seven, as it was referred to by the Universal Guild, to evolve to this point.  Many a times, some within the Guild had proposed a Cleansing of Galaxy Seven, or at least, an isolation ring.  Too much tribalism, too much selfishness, too little reason, empathy and perspective.  But, the slow process of progress interwoven with segments of backsliding had finally resulted in the year when Galaxy Seven was welcomed into the Guild, albeit as a probationary member, subject to the rules and restrictions of such a classification.

One such condition was the 50 year report on the progress of those planets which contained sentient life.  This report was both critical to the advancement of Galaxy Seven towards permanent membership within the Guild, and necessary for the evaluation of the planetary occupants themselves, if they wished their home worlds to remain in good standing within the galaxy.  

It was also the main mode of identifying planets for their own Great Awakening.

There is little documentation available detailing the struggles of the earliest beings as they attained the knowledge and social maturity which eliminated violence.  We know it was as full of fits and stops and starts as any other civilization's.  We also know there were many more failures than successes.  Still, there was a treasure trove of records that detailed the early, if not the earliest, trials and tribulations of the species who were able to leave their most violent traits behind, yet still have the ability to compete with grace, and cooperate above all, to attain the level of technological advancement and sociological empathy that nurtured all the beings within that particular society, not just those that looked, loved, or worshiped in a similar fashion.  

And even more critically, time after time, the passing of the threshold which almost exclusively separated those that survived and flourished from those that withered and died.  That important threshold in which a full understanding of the fact that material success, while desirable and important, did not give those who had won the birth lottery in terms of resources, economic as well as mental, to use that advantage to keep others less fortunate "in their place".  It was not enough for a society to realize that the physical advantages of the strong bodied should not be used to bully those who were weaker, it was necessary for the same realization, and cultural condemnation, to be applied to those who used their mental superiority to take advantage of those less fortunate.

In stark terms, it took the denizens of any particular planet to incorporate the philosophy that helping one another, specifically, those born with less by those born with more, towards the goal of all being given access to and opportunity for happiness and prosperity, was the one and only proven way for long term viability, and hence was the most important yardstick for evaluation.

As the space computers began arriving to have their data downloaded into the portal which connected all the various portals to the main computer monitored by the technicians so trained by The Guild, there was much interest in the data emanating from Galaxy Seven, and especially from the third planet orbiting around star 2790.  

Star 2790 was a relatively young star within Galaxy Seven, and like the many stars with similar traits, had been placed on the watch list after the standard waiting period of 4 billion years. Then, once it had been determined that the third planet in distance from star 2790 contained the raw materials for future life, both the star and that planet were moved to the next level of surveillance.  At that point, with the standard protocols in place, the waiting commenced.

Again, the archives of the Guild did not include all the accepted and rejected protocols that had eventually resulted in those that were now stringently followed, but the current process had been in place for millennia.  In summary, this process included the following:

- Assistance at the molecular level to begin the evolutionary process

- Continued tweaking at this base level to allow for the most diverse results in terms of plant and animal life

- An imprinting of sorts, that provided, at the DNA level, a latent connection to something bigger, something superior to itself

- Intense monitoring which sometimes included a cleansing, whether it be of just animals, or actual precursors of future intelligent life

- Routine visits (routine defined as intervals of tens of thousands of years) which reinforced the imprinting from the earliest days

- The "let alone" period in which, it was hoped, that the new life form would progress reasonably along the desired path, a period which had been determined to be within a fairly limited time frame, although that time frame, when compared to billions of years, still spanned thousands of generations.

- The science and technology phase, almost exclusively the last part of the process, in which the planet's occupants developed the ability to leave its home system for space travel

It was this last phase that always generated the most interest for the technicians of the Guild, as it was during this phase that the path was set forth for The Great Awakening, or obstacles instituted to restrict the ability for significant space travel for that planet's inhabitants. And it is this last phase that the third planet from star 2790 had been placed in a recent evaluation.

The technician in charge of this particular section of Galaxy Seven, was very experienced.  Caelestis had a reputation for fairness in her evaluations and recommendations, but also strict adherence to the guidelines.  She was not prone to sentimentality yet also understood that tolerance and understanding also needed to be applied when evaluating this most important phase.  

The computer which had just returned from Galaxy Seven had begun its download of data weeks before arrival, but it would still be a number of days before all the data was compiled, and still more time before the analysis would be auto-checked against the standards.  Only then would she be given the signal to begin her final evaluations.

In the meantime, Caelestis reviewed the previous records related to this planet, the raw data, the analysis which was done by the main computer, and her own recommendations.  While, in general, the planet's progress was within standards, there was an unusual manifestation of tribalism that revolved around the belief in a superior being.  This belief in itself, that "something" was the source of all life, was, after all, part of the imprinting process that the Guild had established in its efforts to nurture life in the universe. 

What was different in this planet's reaction to this implanted concept was their use of violence to, allegedly, prove the superiority of their own particular religion, as they called it.  For most civilizations, the idea of an all powerful creator was a unifying factor.  But for this planet, it had been responsible for an incredible amount of war and death and destruction.  It seemed that very few of those who declared allegiance to their particular version of the Almighty, understood the seemingly obvious point that all life forms, plants, animals and people, were created by the same superior force.  Especially those with consciousness.  And, by that common thread, all should demonstrate their fealty to the Almighty by treating all other people as they would want to be treated, and as a show of appreciation for the variety of life as given them.  To glorify their creator by recognizing that all men were made by that same creator, and should be treated equally.

Caelestis hoped that this new set of data might reveal some progress in this area, especially if there had been significant advancement in their ability to travel beyond their planet.  Space travel would be restricted, should there be the possibility that a respect for those alien life forms that would be encountered, could not be assumed.  If the peoples of this planet couldn't live in peace with themselves, there was little chance they could live peacefully with other worlds.

When the computer analysis was delivered, Caelestis scanned the charts and graphs, and reviewed the detailed information.  Her face slowly changed from serious scrutiny to a furrowed brow to a look of consternation.  She shook her head more than once, and put down the papers a couple of times and closed her eyes, before going back to her reading.  

When Caelestis finished her review, she opened the evaluation portal, keyed in her thoughts, read them, made a few changes, then closed the link.  She walked to the window, looking out without seeing the panorama of light and life.  She felt sorry for the people of this tiny planet in Galaxy Seven, for she knew that there was no other choice than to place an isolation ring around that planet for at least another cycle, and that they would not be eligible for their own Great Awakening for at least another century per Guild guidelines.

___________________________________________________________________________________

As an occupant of the third planet from star 2790 within Galaxy Seven, it is hard for me to predict if and when we might have our isolation ring removed. We demonstrate such impressive generosity when we employ our traits of empathy and understanding, yet also such horrific cruelty when we follow demagogues who appeal to our worst instincts, our most selfish motives.  

Just these past few years we have witnessed tremendous selflessness by those who cared for and treated the early victims of the Covid pandemic, sometimes providing comfort for those who died without family nearby, sometimes getting sick themselves yet returning to the cause once they recovered, only to witness more death.  Yet so often too, we saw the very worst as well, exemplified by those who valued a misguided definition of freedom above the health of their own neighbors, friends and families.

When a militarily superior country invaded a neighboring country, we united in condemnation for such an outright act of aggression, pledging all kinds of support.  Yet within a few months, we forgot that sometimes a global gesture requires a global sacrifice, and so when our own energy prices began to rise, rather than mirroring the sacrifices made during the last global conflict when gas rations were accepted as part of winning the war over cruelty and saving democracy, we have reverted to only caring about lower gas prices even if it means ravaging our own environment.  

And then there is gun violence.  Alone among virtually all other western countries, America embraces the right to own a weapon of war over the life of its children.  A blind allegiance to a poorly interpreted "right" has now produced debates centered around locked doors and armed teachers, rather than addressing the problem head on.  When the country that purports to represent the best of our species, cannot control the use of guns to inflict injury and death among its citizens, what chance do we have to be accepted as members in good standing within Galaxy Seven? 

My wife often shares her idea that we should fill our sports stadiums with armed crowds of good guys with guns, set off a firecracker, and see how many good people get slaughtered by this absurd concept that all we need to reign in gun violence is more guns.  I can't help but wonder if her idea has somehow been communicated by the Guild, who have placed an isolation ring around our planet, keeping us from spewing violence into the galaxy while allowing us to shoot our guns at each other within a stadium called Earth.

Seeing the Forests and the Trees

The May Edition of the National Geographic was all about forests with a focus on explaining the importance of forests, the critical role they play in protecting our planet from various climate related problems, and how the scientific and environmental communities are working to save them, and ultimately, ourselves.

From old growth forests in Europe to new clues about arboreal evolution to return to ancient methods for reducing the damage to forests caused by fires, to a glimpse at the Phantom Redwood, which is a rare albino variety of the redwood, the issue delved into everything forests and trees in an attempt to convey that, while trees are under attack from climate change and other human caused disturbances, there is time to limit the damage with a concerted effort.

And, of course, as is typical with Nat Geo, the issue was replete with pictures depicting the wide range of the beauty of forests.

Among the many things I learned is that their is a world wide effort to bring tourism into play in an attempt to create a bridge between  interest in environmental concerns that exploring our natural world can inspire in individual tourists, and the communities which work to alter their behavior in order to create such ecotourist destinations, which, in turn can lead to a positive feedback loop between environmental groups and the public in general, who often perceive the environmental movement in a negative light; what we shouldn't do, and/or what we need to sacrifice in order to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gases.

It is that type of paradigm shift that is necessary to convince the public that working towards the goal of keeping climate change within another degree, or even half a degree, Fahrenheit, is a win-win situation.  Towards that end, I read of programs in various places around the world which feature canopy walkways.  These unique tourist attractions allow us to "return to the trees" so to speak by gaining a completely different perspective of our world from the top of a stand of trees. 

Another article related the effort by scientists to help trees migrate, a process that has been ongoing, naturally, for many decades as our climate has warmed.  The idea is to plant seedlings of tree species just a bit north of where they might ordinarily thrive in hopes that in the following years, the trees of these new forests will find the new weather pattern conducive to growth.  It is a delicate balance of choosing the right tree species, predicting the distance that the tree lines are already moving, and finding the right location.

There is also an interesting article about a renewed effort in Australia to learn, or perhaps relearn is the better word, the Aboriginal methods of using small, controlled fires to clear the brush during the wetter seasons, so that the eventual fires that occur during the hot, dry seasons encounter less tinder as fuel which reduce the loss of acreage to those inevitable fires.  

Just another example of working in harmony with nature rather than trying to dominate her, a process that always backfires.

While it is always a pleasure to delve into a dedicated Nat Geo issue, and always inspiring to read about all the people who spend their time to learn about nature, whether it be animals or plants, we are in a the middle of a difficult time featuring intense pressure to put aside our concerns for the environment.  The war in Ukraine with its associated disruptions in the global supply of gas and oil, seems to be far and away a bigger issue than the "down the road problems" that will occur via climate change.  It is just another example in a long history of short term thinking that finds us in the same place as we were about 50 years ago when the OPEC oil embargo caused a spike in gas prices and long lines at the pump.  Despite that stark warning, that America would never be able to meet its energy demands without depending on some form of imports, and that, ultimately, even if we somehow managed to refine as much oil as we need, the price at the pump will always be effected by the global give and take of supply and demand, we continue to pretend that drilling for more fossil fuels is the answer.

And, while there are no easy solutions to both our energy supply issues and the environmental damages which human induced climate change is already creating, there are clear cut pathways to finding the balance which will address both at the same time.  You can say that we lack the will, or that we lack the vision, or that we lack the patience to take the steps we must take, even when there is short term discomfort.  In the end, however, it won't matter why we didn't do what was proper, only that we left future generations with a limited time and limited resources, both which we have been wasting for decades.

The good news is that those species seeing the forests and the trees in 300 years may still be able to witness such majesty, diversity, and life. The bad news is that one must wonder if the human species will be among them.     

Migration

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently finished reading the April/May edition of the Lapham's Quarterly, called Migration.  As is generally the case, the edition expanded my perception of the migration concept, by presenting many articles and essays that did not address human migration, instead discussing animal, and even plant migrations.

Perhaps it is just another indication of the anthropocentric perspective that I have, that most of us have, in that I did not even consider that I would read so many essays detailing migration stories that did not involve humans.  Maybe that in itself, the continued realization (or maybe it is better phrased, the remembering) of the fact that while the human species may be at the top of the food chain at this time in Earth's history, it has only been so for a minuscule percentage of the existence of Earth, should be our constant reminder.  And that should we continue to act as if our survival is all that matters, that without some recognition of the need for harmony with nature, it may come about sooner rather than later that Mother Earth once again is occupied exclusively by plants and animals, not including humans.

Anyway, as is my recent pattern, I reviewed those posts which I titled Immigration, and have provided a link to the three most recent of them although the youngest is already pushing 5 years old.  Here they are:

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2015/09/immigration-and-statue-of-liberty.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2017/03/sanctuary-cities.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2017/09/president-trump-is-right-on-daca-for.html

So, returning to the Lapham's edition, I left bookmarks in a number of places, in hopes of mentioning them either specifically, or in general comments on the magazine as a whole.  Most are migration stories concerning a group of humans, one an excerpt from a book about the subject itself.

For instance, did you know that for the first century, America not only had no laws restricting immigration but openly courted people from around the world to come here for economic opportunity and social freedoms?  That even during the late 19th, early 20th century when the rumblings of xenophobia began to generate political campaigns and nascent laws to label specific peoples as undesirable, the sheer numbers of those crossing the Atlantic, and their ability to establish some level of acceptance through family, kept the serious migration- phobes at bay, at least for those emigrating from countries with people whose race was close enough to those clamoring against the coloring of America, and the invasion of new cultures and traditions.

Or how about the fact that in 1939 the trans Atlantic liner St. Louis left Germany with roughly 930 Jews, all whom traveled with papers that stretched the truth of their real reason for their trip so that they could flee their homeland where they were deemed unwelcome?  And that these people, half of whom were women and children, were repeatedly denied landing in Cuba, despite having official permits allowing them to land there, and the United States, even though most had papers declaring that to be their eventual end point? That they were forced to head back to Europe, despite the money they had paid for those Cuban and US permits, but that during that return trip, many countries witnessed anti-Jewish rallies and speeches, so, after 40 days and 40 nights on the water, various members of the group were grudgingly allowed to disembark in a few different countries where they were treated like all the other Jews of that particular country, depending on its willingness to embrace or fight Hitler's goal of eradicating the Jews.

Or finally, the story of the migration of black doctors to Europe in the decades before the Civil Rights movement in America?  A time when even black veterans from WW2 found in difficult to use their GI Bill money to gain access to US medical schools, instead experiencing a more pleasant experience overseas.

It is this last story, that reminds us that when we endorse restrictive immigration policies, especially those that target specific peoples based on race or religion, we are as much the losers as those we deem unacceptable.  Is it even possible to enumerate all the discoveries and innovations that had helped to propel America towards its current position of influence and power that exist due to the influx of immigrants in the 20th and 21st century?  Will someday historians mark the beginning of America's decline as the time when we turned to nativism and the scapegoating of those that looked or loved or worshiped differently from us, thereby sending that needed dose of new blood, fresh ideas, and a selfless work ethic to other countries? 

My wife and I had visitors this past weekend, and one of the topics was the work ethic of the immigrants, illegal and legal, that we have personally experienced or know of from discussions with other friends.  What was especially interesting is the understanding that those initial immigrants, the first ones of each family to venture from their homeland for better opportunity, are often the ones with the least work skills, but the most work ethic.  The ones who toil for long hours for low pay but who still manage to put enough money aside to send back to their country of origin, and/or, pay for more family to immigrate.  The ones who often work for a few years, then start their own small businesses.  The ones who make sure their children are better educated than themselves.  The ones who live to see that first, and often second generation of Americans, their children and grandchildren, enjoy freedoms, opportunity and even acceptance.  So many American success stories, just like those of our friends and my own family, whose ancestors took a chance on themselves and the ideal that if they worked hard, America would reward them.  

It doesn't matter if the old country is Germany, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Guatemala, or El Salvador, the pride of those who first emigrated passes down to that first and second generation who now claim America as their native land.  

I wrote a story about 10 years ago called The Debate.   It was futuristic, in that it depicted the controversy surrounding a proposal to legalize a certain type of marriage.  In some ways it is a negative story that reflects the fact that prejudice and xenophobia may be with us far into the future.  But it is also positive, in that it intimates that those tribal forces which compel us to circle the wagons and immediately fear social progress, evolve to include wider and wider swaths of people.  As the fear of the clan on the other side of the mountain became the fear of those who spoke another language, evolved to the fear of those who worshiped a different god, or loved a different way, perhaps someday our prejudices will have a more planetary basis.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2012/04/debate.html