A NOTE TO AMERICAN PROSECUTORS

By Ruth A. Sheets

The Roberts Supreme Court conservatives did a lot of damage to this nation when they overturned the 50-year precedent Roe v. Wade last summer.  They knowingly let Americans see that the Court conservatives care nothing for precedent, will go after any rights they don’t personally or ideologically care for, and put many women’s lives at risk.  Women, particularly poor women and women of color of reproductive age are vulnerable to the whims of old white men who dominate the legislatures in the former Confederacy and confederate wannabee states.  By declaring that there is no constitutional protection for abortion the SC conservatives could depend on those old white red-state guys and their surrogates to do their dirty work of taking away women’s rights.  The SC conservatives, if asked, could lie, ”It wasn’t us, the states decided to outlaw abortions!”

Alito and friends were well aware of the make-up of red state legislatures as he/they “researched” and wrote their pathetic decision.  I suspect Alito, and possibly the other conservative justices gloated silently when Alito leaked (“accidentally” let someone, maybe his wife, get hold of the draft) nearly 2 months before the actual ruling came down.  The final document was nearly identical to the draft, which means Justice Alito and his crew didn’t even have to clean up the poorly-reasoned, poorly-written draft.  Why, because Alito had succeeded in informing the red states of what was coming so they could be armed and ready with legislation, and they were.  In reality, he and the other SC conservatives just didn’t care about quality.  Only their supposed victory over abortion mattered.  The mostly male and one female justices had little concern for the havoc their ruling would cause so many women and families.  They dismissed the fact that a majority of  American people do not agree with the decision.  That’s a lot of not caring!

This is Women’s History Month when women are supposedly celebrated.  Most women are not feeling celebrated this year.  More states are targeting women’s right to bodily autonomy, mothers are threatened for providing help for their trans and non-binary children, and trans people and drag queens are being criminalized.  Women still face harassment at work and in the public sphere, earn less than men, and very often live the double role they have been expected to live if they choose to work outside the home. 

The problem for conservative men is that women are everywhere and are chafing at their assigned roles which are usually seen as less valuable than the work men do.  Women run the households:  care for the children and the spouse if there is one, care for older parents, do the shopping and meal preparation, clean the home, and on and on.  These tasks are not so hard, right?  And, why should a woman need or want more?

However, in addition to all that, our economy depends on women holding down jobs:  teaching in our schools, nursing in our hospitals, doing the grunt work for businessmen, the jobs women were permitted gradually over time.  They did this while men did whatever it was men did. 

What a blessing that women were not satisfied to stay in the roles men and their female helpers laid out for them.  From ancient times, some women ignored the narrative and acted for themselves, their families  and their communities, often putting their lives at risk. 

In American history, how many know of Ida Wells Barnette, Antoinette Brown, Alice Paul, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, Phyllis Wheatly, Deborah Sampson, the Grimke sisters, Edith Wilson, Ella Baker?  These women were pioneers in moving into the male world, doing what men do.  We don’t know the names of the millions who were doing the same kinds of tasks as these amazing women with little or no recognition:  taking care of pregnant women, growing herbs to soothe those who were ill, fighting for civil rights, spying for and serving in this nation’s military, protecting their neighbors, rescuing people from danger, and leading from behind and beside the throne.  I think these women’s consistent actions scared and continue to scare men and some women, especially those in power.  If women can help each other plan and end pregnancies, limit family size, and support their children in positive ways to grow into the adults they are meant to be, they may not be as easily controlled and manipulated as in the past.  Can’t have that! 

Since last June, I have been frustrated that there have not been larger, more vocal protests from women to the uncaring, misogynistic, racist, homo/transphobic, pseudo-Christian actions taken by our Supreme Court’s and state legislatures’ mostly white male conservatives.  When I finally stopped to think about it, I realized what a monumental task it is for women just to balance all the components of their lives.  Where would the energy come from to participate in the high-level protests for bodily autonomy that are needed?  Unfortunately, the anti-abortion crowd has the momentum at this moment, draining the energy of a significant portion of the population, those striving to put out all the fires right-wing ideologues have started. 

Therefore, women of child-bearing age are going to need a whole lot of allies among older women, men, and people in power to carry a lot of the weight.  The media will be of minimal help because of their warped “balancing act,” trying to cover as many anti-abortion figures as pro-choice persons even though there are many more pro-choice, even pro-abortion Americans than anti’s.

That’s where local prosecutors can really help.  You all can quietly dismiss cases where the people who bring the suit or complaint have no standing (not directly involved with the women they are accusing).  You don’t need to shout what you are doing to the heavens because there are a lot of haters out there who will go after you, bring even harsher laws against women, and force you to act against them even when you know it is wrong to do so.  The old white men who are legislating want to keep women down as far as possible.  You need not help them. 

Let’s be honest, those old men are ignorant of women’s lives.  They will never know the hell of being forced to carry a fetus that is seriously impaired or dying.  They will never feel the pain of carrying the fetus of a rapist or incestor.  They will never have to face needing an abortion because their own life is at risk and their doctor fears treating them.  They will never be denied medication for a chronic condition because the medication might end a pregnancy.  They will never know the pain of trying to figure out how they will manage to care for one more child when they already have 3 or more.  They won’t have to try to figure out how they can afford the prenatal care and birth of the baby when they have no medical insurance.  They will not find their education or career in jeopardy because they are pregnant.  Those who are passing these outrageous laws have no clue, and don’t want one.

We need you prosecutors to help to nullify the Supreme Court ruling which should never have happened in the first place.  We need to stop these self-righteous a-holes who had the gall to cite Medieval and 17th century bigots who were OK with killing women as witches to affirm their decision to take away a woman's right to bodily autonomy.  That is insane but what can one expect from old white guys who hate women, a Black guy who was put on the SC as a slap in the face to African-Americans and a misogynistic white woman whose appointment was shoved through to squeeze her in before the 2020 election to stir up the base?  On the current Court, there's a credibly accused sexual offender and a sexual harasser, a chief justice who cares nothing for the law he claims to know so well and convinced so many people he did.  (I guess a pretty white boy can convince nearly anyone of anything.)  The wives of Roberts and Thomas are activists against policies that one would consider democratic.  There is more, but you all get the point.  These right-wing justices do not represent the American people, just a minority, the ones  who are closed-minded, hate science unless it is specifically helping them or their family, think the Constitution can be twisted to say whatever they want it to say while claiming they are “originalists” who know the Founder’s minds, believe in witches and outrageous conspiracy theories, and see women only as baby factories to be controlled.  

So, prosecutors, there was no pressing need that led to the anti-Roe ruling as there should have been if a precedent was going to be overturned.  Nothing had changed recently except that the majority in the SC became super conservative.  And at least 3 of the justices lied to Congress about their responsibility to precedents.  The Court’s anti-Roe decision represents the prejudices of 6 justices who think they are holier than anyone else.  You know they’re not, so prosecutors, be an ally to women in general and pregnant women in particular.  Abortion should be a woman’s decision with the scientifically-based advice from their doctor and other medical personnel.  You all could make a difficult life a lot easier by stopping the Republican war on women and our bodily autonomy.

Prosecute violence and vigilantism against women while ignoring the tattle-tailing and vengeance-seeking and hatred of women that could fill your community's courts if you permit it. 

You prosecutors could be the bulwark standing against the anti-woman nonsense the Republicans are pushing like a drug these days.  I guess fighting meth, heroine, and their other favorite drugs just wasn't enough excitement for Republicans/conservatives.  Don't prosecute women for seeking the healthcare they want and need.  Then, fight for your right to support them. 

We the People will be watching to see which of you actually cares about women (and human beings in general), by what you and other local officials choose to do or not do. 

Yo, Prosecutors, we need some heroes right now and we’re looking to you!   

CORPORATE GREED AND WHAT IT DOES TO US

By Ruth A. Sheets

Back in the 1980s, corporations noticed that their friend, Ronald Reagan would give them pretty much whatever they wanted, with little accountability.  Reagan didn’t start it, but really pushed  deregulation and the offshoring of manufacturing and other work to get poor foreign workers to do the corporation’s work for a pittance.  Too bad for us!    Corporations even got tax breaks for their trouble and for hurting American workers, although once moved overseas, they did not have to think of the American workers at all.

Jobs here were kept as lo paying as possible and regulations began dropping off, benefiting the corporations, but sometimes endangering workers, customers, and others touched by the operation or product.  We were told over and over, it was all for America and if workers wanted a job, they would have to take what was offered.  Unions began falling out of favor, being blamed for disrupting the “march of progress.”  Ronald Reagan and his Republican followers smiled at their success in making the rich richer and the middle and working-classes poorer.  They didn’t care much about the truly poor because, they were all welfare cheats, right?

The “good” jobs, supposedly being created from deregulation often paid poorly.  At least two salaries were needed to support a household, often more than two. 

As corporations, their owners, and CEOs became wealthier due to tax rates coming down and regulations going away, they began to see new ways to manipulate the economy and our government.   Their wealth let them support candidates in elections at every level.  When they found that to be very profitable, they began looking elsewhere to see what they could do using their money and the power that arose from it. 

The tech revolution happened while deregulation was ramping up.  Those new corporations were owned and operated by young white guys who got an idea, dropped out of college, and foisted their new ideas onto people who were looking for something new and got it.  They also got something old too, white men wanting to run their corporations with no oversight and no taxes, while demanding a nearly impossible work life from their employees.  The jobs usually paid pretty well, so workers sacrificed almost everything to meet the hyperactive CEOs requirements.   

Over time, Rich men and corporations looked to gain complete mastery of Wealth World.  They looked around again and realized they must be sure to win all legal cases brought against them and their negligent practices.  Deregulation was simply not enough.  They began subtlely buying judges, justices, and members of our Department of Justice so corporate cases would be regularly ruled in favor of the corporations.  Donations to The Federalist Society and other right-wing organizations let universities train young lawyers to be the puppets the corporations needed, some of those institutions, Ivy League, yep, the universities supposed to be educating quality lawyers who actually believe in the rule of law.  The training these future corporate lawyers received taught them to twist the law to make it say whatever their corporate masters wanted it to say.  They got really good at it. 

Those newly minted conservative lawyers rose in the corporate order and some became Federal judges, then justices of our Supreme Court under Republican presidents.  They did not suddenly become fair judges/justices who actually listened and ruled on the constitutionality of the case, but ones who bowed to corporate desires at nearly every turn, Constitution be damned!

Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court case that called corporations persons and said money is speech was their masterpiece.  The conservative SC justices claim to be originalists, but, we all know that’s nonsense.  There is no way any modern human being could possibly know what the Founders were thinking.  And, one thing for certain, none of our Founders would have thought a corporation (company) could be a person and would never have seen money as speech. 

Corporations wanted money to be speech so they could more easily pump money into buying more candidates.  Chief Justice Roberts and his Klan complied by contorting the First Amendment so it would look like the Constitution allowed something beyond ridiculous.

Under W. Bush, during the “Great Recession,” (2008-09), members  of both parties, approved a “bail-out for banks and other large corporations (too big to fail).  That money should have gone to mortgage owners so they could pay back what they borrowed instead of paying the banks who had caused the recession.  The banks and other collection agencies had no idea of what to do with all the foreclosed properties they now owned.  The ignorance of all concerned led to the destruction of neighborhoods and people’s lives.  A whole crew of hedge fund-type corporations came on the scene, contributing to the chaos, and are still around and guess what, doing chaos. 

Democrats did not pay sufficient attention.  There was only mild protest at the time and Democrats did little to counter what Republicans and their corporate owners were doing to our economy and our society.  With the courts’ blessing, Republicans began undermining the Voting Rights Act and passing all kinds of voter suppression laws beginning in the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabee states; allowing insurrectionists to hold office despite the Constitution forbidding it; corporate price gouging with impunity; corporations refusing to pay taxes, making all kinds of excuses for why they shouldn’t have to pay taxes; tech corporations permitting on their platforms, lying and misinformation that endangers people’s lives; American citizens being targeted for actions that should be no business either of corporations or our government and so much more.  Lately, Republicans have steered the corporate ship through the waters making sure it didn't matter what the ship ran into, it would have legal smooth sailing, and it mostly has. 

Our environment is in danger, mostly due to the actions of corporations, but corporations have found ways to evade the blows of responsibility.  They have picked up and mostly adopted a language of caring about the needs of the people and how they are ready to help (lies, of course).  They speak of equity and diversity and how important these are while still harboring toxic workplaces that are seldom challenged.  

Corporate officials mention "climate change" but only when they have to.  They encouraged avoiding the term “global warming” (which describes what is really going on), in favor of “climate change,” (which sounds softer and less scary). 

The corporations most involved are predominantly white-owned, white-CEOed, and white lawyered.  Despite their public words, they care as little as possible about the environment (since most of the people currently impacted are people of color and poor white folks).  Ocean rise, stronger storms, wildfires, and any of that climate change stuff, they erroneously believe won’t touch them because their wealth will keep them safe.  Wealth World will be protected for a while, but not as long as they think.  Their money, a lot of it is invisible and dependent on economies functioning.  Right now most economies that matter to American corporations are functioning, although closer to the edge than they have been for a while.  How often can one clean up after wildfires and hurricanes and for how long and still maintain a semblance of economic functioning?  Republicans have been complicit in letting corporations believe they are invulnerable (unless another bigger corporation wants to take them over). 

But, Republicans live in a fantasyland where members of the House of Representatives can lie about nearly everything with impunity.  Their Speaker can whine about all kinds of things that really don't matter in the long run because they meant nothing in the first place (Hunter Biden's laptop).  Congress Republicans can essentially ignore what corporations are doing and continue to do despite the damage to the planet.  Corporations are convinced they can't do anything to stop what they are doing  if they are to survive in their cut-throat world (which of course, they helped to create). 

We the People need to do a better job of educating the public about what is going on and what we as a people are investing in.  We need to show people just how precarious our climate situation is with real images and stop saying "we don't know if this disaster is just a 'normal' part of weather in this area or climate change."  It's all climate change/global warming now.  We need to remind parents, particularly white ones that if they want a positive healthy future for their precious children they have to start voting for people who actually care about them.  Having an "R" behind one's name is nearly a guarantee the person will not be someone who will stand with or fight for them.  Those “Rs” will most likely give even more advantages to the corporations who will do nothing until forced.  Money and power are their addictions both corporate and Republican, so it is hard to see how We the People can break through. 

We do have to try though, for the sake of those who come after us, the ones from whom we have borrowed this planet.  

Maybe it will take just one or two large corporations to stand up and ignore what other corporations are doing, and go in a better direction.  Someone needs to start it, though.  I would like to see pharmaceutical corporations stand up to the courts and keep selling and distributing abortion pills since we all know they are safe and effective, despite what a bunch of conservative white male judges/justices claim. 

Yo Democrats!  You could propose bills that would give incentives to corporations who actually do work to save our environment and want and value diversity in their corporate leadership and in our society.  We need a group within our government who can identify those corporations and note the advances they have actually made in those areas, not just what they have said and written in their reports which are often full of lies and unmet intentions.  It could work to move our nation toward properly regulating corporations and stopping the pathetic idea of corporation personhood and money-speech.  We could move toward corporate sanity.  Please, at least try it!

CRUELTY IS THE POINT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Governor DeSantis of Florida and other “red” state governors are pushing their state legislatures into acts of deliberate cruelty, passing laws that are designed to cause harm to residents of their states, appalling legislation that should be unconstitutional, but probably will not be judged so.  Why not?  These new rights-restricting laws fit perfectly into the current ultra-right-wing Republican agenda.

That Republican agenda seems to be to hurt as many non-white, non-“Christian,” non-straight, non-male people as possible and keep those folks in their place, far below the exalted place of rich, straight, “Christian” white men.  It is not enough to just work on removing constitutional rights, there must be pain to remind those folks they are pretty much worthless except for their votes, but only if those votes are for the “R” on the ballot, and, the “red” states’ voters are conditioned to vote for the “R” no matter who it is.   (Mommy and Daddy were “r’s” and I must be too.”

The cruelty is present in much of what Republican leaders do, all of it intentional.  Women’s bodily autonomy, for example, is challenged at every turn even to proposing the outlawing of birth control.  That would put all women of reproductive age at the mercy of male sperm and cause them to produce children they are not ready for or can’t afford to raise and who could have severe disabilities due to the poor quality of health care those targeted poor mostly women of color are able to obtain. 

There’s the “war” against trans children and youth.  Ignorant Republicans claim to believe everyone’s gender at birth is the one they MUST live through their entire lives.  They claim god told them so.  Jesus never condemned people living and dressing as a different gender from that of their birth and he clearly would have known about it.  (Oh wait, that’s the same with abortion, Jesus didn’t condemn that either.  Hmmmm!)

Bills being shoved through now to become law are forbidding medical care for helping trans children and youth.   One of the most common of the medical treatments involves use of puberty blockers to make the child’s transition a bit less traumatic.  Counseling and other hormone treatments are part of the process too.  Knowing that the suicide rate among trans youth is very high, the legislators commanded by the states’ governors pass the laws anyway.  In South Dakota, the families get a year to stop the transition process.  The ignorance of the Republican leadership is astounding!  They pass laws that can only hurt those children and families.  Some states want to stop treatment for adults in transition too.  Why do that?  Republicans these days need victims, suffering-human-meat for their warped base.  Cruelty is the point!

Asylum-seekers and refugees are lied to and put on buses to cities that are not even informed they (including children) are coming, giving them little time to prepare.  Why, to take a kind of revenge on those “woke” cities and to disorient the newcomers.  CRUELTY IS THE POINT and those Republicans are reveling in it, gleefully reporting what they have done.

Republican leadership perpetrates cruelty on white Republicans too! They questioned the value of COVID vaccines and hundreds of thousands died who would not have had their lying not kept them from being vaccinated or wearing masks from a manufactured fear of vaccines and claim of freedom to wear whatever they want.  Republicans also suffered when states refused Medicaid money to support struggling families.  I suspect waging cruelty has become part of who Republicans are now.

Then, there’s the police!  Administrations for decades have been militarizing police and that new weaponry and attitude of police invulnerability and insensitivity have led to many victims of police violence, a high percentage of whom are men of color.  Rape and abuse of women by police is common in some communities too and nearly none of this bad behavior on the part of police has even been prosecuted, so few have been held accountable and whole communities are intimidated by police presence.  Yep, more cruelty and it won’t stop without accountability.  Often, the people of targeted communities are blamed for the police violence, mostly implied; can’t say that out loud! 

Cruelty has been used for thousands of years to control people.  Leaders have employed unspeakable tortures and executions to terrorize people into behaving just as the dictators, those in charge, want them to (or at least that is what they claimed).  And, the more cruel, the better.  In reality, those doing the torture et al were sick people who reveled in the suffering of others (sadists and psychopaths).  Giving those people free rein kept them loyal and useful and terror alive and well among the people.

Here’s a little trip into history to visit a few popular cruelties:

• If you don’t like a woman (or man on occasion) and the person is a little odd, accuse them of  witchcraft or heresy, torture them,  and watch them burn.
• If you want to keep power over a diverse community as the rulers of Ancient Rome did, publicly crucify “criminals” so others can watch them die and gloat in their suffering.
• Get “ordinary people” participating in the cruelty as Germans in the 1930s did, letting them destroy Jewish property, beat Jews and other “enemies of the state,” turn in Jewish neighbors, and so much more.  They went along with their leaders running unspeakable death and slave labor camps all over occupied Europe.  Those ordinary people claimed, “We didn’t know what Hitler and his gang were doing.  It wasn’t our fault.”
• Enslaved persons in this country and throughout the Americas were beaten into submission so they would function as machine-like beings doing the work rich white people would benefit from, but couldn’t/wouldn’t' do.  And, the various governments heartily approved, and were active participants.  I guess they all thought Black people didn’t feel the pain of the whips, chains, and general abuse, cruelty perpetrated by their owners every day with death or escape the only way to stop the pain.  Cruelty was the point to keep the owned in line.

 And now, the cruelty continues as ignorant conservative white people try their best to erase what their white ancestors did in this country to Black, Native American, Chinese, Japanese (World War II internment) people, and to anyone who crossed white men in power.  And this was all government-sanctioned.  The white descendants of the perpetrators want their fragile kiddies to learn only the great things white men did in our history while downplaying everything else.  They don’t even try to hide their intentions.  They cry in their fear and ignorance, “CRT (Critical Race Theory), ban books about Black Americans as well as LGBTQ stories, and deliberately plot to remove people’s rights.  The story of Rosa Parks is banned in Florida and some other spots, for example.  Why, because she was a hero for standing against white cruelty.

The thing is, we can’t change what happened in the past.  We can’t make the cruelties perpetrated back then any less cruel, but we can learn from our past so we don’t permit the continuation of the cult of cruelty.  Republicans need to be stopped from working to maintain and perfect their ability to cause suffering.  We the People all need to stand up and call it what it is, CRUELTY!  Evil! 

None of what these governors and legislators is doing is accidental, but a lot of it stems from deliberate ignorance.  Fact-checkers can’t keep up with the number of lies and the media often dismisses the harm their words and actions are causing.  That is just as these Republicans want it.  While We the People try to chase and counter their lies, they work even harder to take away people’s rights and our appalling Supreme Court conservatives are on board.  Cruelty is the point for them too.

So, Democrats and any Republicans who still believe in this nation and the value of diversity need to vote down any proposed laws at any governmental level designed to cause suffering or to make suffering more severe.  Banning books and blaming teachers and librarians for wanting students to know our full history is cruel and should be seen as criminal.  All, and I mean ALL educators and support staff in schools need to stand up against it.  It is also cruel to deny financial support to struggling families; to charge rent too high for minimum-wage workers  to afford; to deny asylum to people who have lost everything, even some family members’ lives to get here; to separate children from their parents for any but the most critical reasons as the Trump administration did at our southern border; to plot to cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare; to allow insurgents to hold important positions in our nation’s congress; and to allow people (white people) to carry concealed weapons without a permit.  There is a lot of cruelty going on in our society right now and a whole lot of people in power are causing it or like the ordinary people of 1930s and 1940s Germany, lie and pretend they don’t know about it. 

Some questions that should be asked of potential candidates for office at every level should include “Where to you stand on the issue of banning books?”  A follow-up should be “In your way of thinking, what should be included in American History classes?”  In short, candidates should be expected to outline their positions on the cruelties being perpetrated by a lot of white and white wannabee officials.  Cruelty is unacceptable done by anyone.  It is time We the People make that clear and start voting for candidates who agree and will note reports of instances of cruelty and act to stop it.

Remember, power can corrupt but so can cruelty.  Cruelty begets even more cruelty and with increasing levels of severity.  We the People can curb it and those who perpetrate it if we have the will.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH, A NECESSITY FOR WHITE PEOPLE

by Ruth Sheets

I appreciate “Black History Month.”  It provides a kind of relief for all of us from the other 11 months of whiteness, mostly white maleness (this includes the months dedicated to the history and contributions of other groups like Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous persons since their months have gotten little recognition and support so far, unfortunately). 

The challenge, many white men, particularly those in power, simply don’t acknowledge the fact that it is they who encompass most of the stories and people of US history classes with the rest of us nearly always on the periphery.  Their ever-presence is just assumed.  White men were/are the stars of every show while everyone else place supporting roles if even allowed on stage at all.

I suspect every white person in power can name 3 prominent African-Americans from the past, usually:  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglas, so “why do we need Black History Month, we’ve got it?”  Well, Can they identify 3 things each of them has contributed to this nation?  That is less likely.  I bet every Black leader in this country could name a whole lot of white people in American history beyond George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Abe Lincoln.  And, they can name more than 3 significant things about each. 

Right now, white folks, particularly “conservative” ones, are scared.  Until around 1955 and the beginning of the Montgomery, AL bus boycott, white people just assumed they were America and everyone else served as extras in their movie of life.  It was OK to treat Black soldiers, Marines, and sailors as inferior and the white officers constantly did their best to put them in a place far below white members of the services despite their extraordinary contributions and Truman’s move to integrate the military, something not done since our War for Independence.  

Black actors played servants, criminals, or workers in minor roles unless it was a “Black movie” or play.  Black musicians were popular but could only be heard by white people among other white people in segregated venues in most parts of the country. 

I had read of people in many areas of our country who had never seen someone who was Black (in person), by the time they reached adulthood.  I found that hard to believe until I went to college and met several.  A friend in graduate school in the 1980s had seen a few at a distance, but never met a Black person until he came onto our campus.  He had met Native Americans, being from South Dakota, but white people were all around him, all the time.  He told me there were rumors of a couple of Black students in his undergraduate college, but he never had a class with one of them.  That was the 1980s!

White Americans have a long history of mistreating people of color.  That is part of our history and continued over time because even our government saw it as acceptable.  Anyone who believed the nation should be able to do better was put down, silenced, even killed to stop that from happening.  Attacks on Black communities were permitted as was lynching, both terrorist actions to keep Black people in an inferior place subject to the whims of white people mostly men.  White women participated too, calling rape on Black men and youth because they liked the power they had to destroy the life of someone beneath them, possibly the way people harm animals because they can. 

As I said, white people in power are scared.  They may have an inkling that their ancestors, perhaps even their own parents and grandparents have done terrible things to harm Black fellow citizens.  They stole their land (hey, they did that to indigenous persons and so many others too), kept them enslaved, beat them for not doing tasks as fast as the whites thought they should (even though those whites couldn’t have begun to do that level of work, then stole their wages).  They took away their vote, drove them out of communities, set up “sunset laws” which made it illegal for a Black person to be in a town after sunset, destroyed Black-owned businesses, and so much more, yet despite all of this, Black people are rising.  They have not yet reached parity, or even close to it yet, but there has been progress.  Too many white Americans fear (for no reason in reality) that Black people, and other people of color will take charge, “steal” their jobs and relegate white people to the poverty, discrimination, and violence white people have subject Black Americans to over the years.

We see this mind-crushing fear in the actions of Ron DeSantis (a relatively recent immigrant family, who should know better) and several of his fellow Republican governors.  Those guys seem to be able to get their mostly-white state legislatures to bow to their will, passing all kinds of laws to try to put Black people back in the box those white “leaders” want them to stay in.

Then, there’s the ongoing police attack on Black Americans that has been part of life for generations.  We hear about its frequency now because we have body cameras that are supposed to be turned on during on duty encounters with community members.  There is nothing new about the beatings, choke holds, “no-knock” warrants, planting drugs, murders, lying and cover-ups perpetrated by police on members of the Black community; we just get to see it now and allow ourselves to rightly be horrified by it, that is, when we aren’t thinking either “He must have done something to deserve that” or “the cop really didn’t have a choice; he thought his life was threatened.” 

It has taken a while, but now, more white people are assisting their Black fellow citizens in stopping the anti-everyone-but-white-men actions, but not yet enough.  Those Republican-led state legislatures are passing laws to make it very difficult for Black people to vote, intimidating Black voters with threats of arrest for voter fraud they didn’t commit, and shoving through other laws that primarily make life in general difficult, even dangerous for people of color.  Equally problematic is that to a great extent, our courts are going along, often making up interpretations of the law that permits such unamerican actions against fellow citizens.  

February is Black History Month, for white Americans, Black Appreciation Month too, when We the People of the United States start to seriously learn what has been done to our fellow Black citizens by our fellow white citizens, and determine that we as a nation need to make amends.  We need to appreciate the amazing things our fellow Black citizens have done to help make this nation a world leader in so many areas.  Black History Month is a perfect time for every single white citizen to consider our own prejudices, even unconscious biases, and think about how our own actions have negatively impacted Black Americans.  Then we need to think about ways we need to work to lessen or even eliminate those prejudices/biases, becoming allies with Black Americans to work harder toward the founders’ dream of always working to make ourselves “a more perfect union.” This means making sure all citizens over 18 years of age can easily vote for  the candidates of their choice just as the Constitution demands, and have their votes counted.  Reformation of our police departments is essential.  This will require communities to redefine who should be police in the community, the kind of training they will need to be true servants of the people rather than community bullies.  Black people must be at the center of any changes made since they have been harmed most by traditional policing in this country.  Our judicial system from top to bottom needs to be composed of fair, talented, diverse judges and justices who actually care about the law, judging on the facts rather than their own unexamined or dismissed prejudices or donations from rich white people and corporations. 

When state governors try to take away people’s rights:  to read books they choose, to teach and learn Black History, to vote easily in every election, to have bodily autonomy, to be on streets and roads in the state in safety related to gun and police violence, to have clean air and water, and the rest, everyone, white, Black, all people of color, all genders, need to stand up and say “STOP!  We all deserve better and we demand it!!” 

February is a time for white Americans to listen carefully to Black Americans discussing the beauty and depth of African-American history and culture.   As all of us learn more about this narrative, we must ponder how we can more fully incorporate that American story into what is taught as American history, then make sure it is there.  It certainly is time! 

QUOTES TO HELP US REMEMBER WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE WANT TO BE

Compiled by Ruth A. Sheets

This week, I received a note from a friend that mentioned how difficult February can be.  It feels like spring should be here by now (even though this winter has been very warm) and there can be a lot of cloudy days.  My friend lost several members of his family in Februarys over the years and finds that sadness comes with the grey chilly days.  Perhaps February brings some sadness or just melancholy in general. 

For me, February is a month of hope, a belief that spring really is coming and that winter is moving on.  The grey days remind me that we need rain and yes, even snow when it comes.  So, to help me/us remember how special life is, I have compiled some quotes that have spoken to me over this past year.  I wish you joy, hope, peace, and happiness as you read and ponder them.

1. Kindness is the greatest work of all.  Small acts of kindness last longer than a lifetime.  Kindness and generosity and faith in your fellow man are more important than money.  Eddie Jaku, Auschwitz Survivor 

He also said:  May you always have lots of love to share, lots of good health to spare, and lots of good friends who care.  Every day, remember to be happy, and to make others happy too.  Make yourself a friend to the world.

2. Gratitude is the antidote to fear and there's always something to be thankful for.  Rita Wilson, Singer 

3. Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  Marcel Proust, Writer, Philosopher 

4. We can't just hope for a brighter day, we have to work for a brighter day. Love too often gets buried in a world of hurt and fear. And we have to work to dig it out so we can share it with our family, our friends, and our neighbors. Dolly Parton, Singer, Song-writer, Activist

 5. You know you can always help to make each day a special day by just your being yourself. You grow in your own way; everyone does. That’s one reason each one of us is different and special and people can like us exactly as we are. Fred Rogers, Minister, Children’s TV Host 

 6. I've never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else. Abby Wambach, Soccer Star, Activist

 7. I'm convinced of this — Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.  Maya Angelou, Writer, Activist

 8. “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!  Anne Frank, Holocaust Victim

 9. Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure make you forget that you have been created for greater things: to love and to be loved. Mother Teresa, Catholic Nun, Servant and an Advocate for Poor Persons

10. A single individual is enough for hope to exist. And that individual can be you.  Pope Francis

11. We are each other’s harvest.  We are each other’s business.  We are each other’s magnitude and bond. Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet, Activist

12. Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones.  Shannon L. Alder, Writer

13. Use me, God, show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Pastor, Activist   

14. It's good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for a while their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.  Dr. Maya Angelou

15. The good news is that every morning we have the choice; not to be controlled by circumstances nor our past but by purposely designing our day, hence our lives better. Not to react to life but to respond with love. Bernard Kelvin Clive

16. Awe is the mind encountering the universe.  Rabbi Abraham Heschel 

17.  Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.  John Barrymore, Actor

18. We need to start from inclusion.  As things arise, I have confidence we can figure it out.  We can’t start at the opposite.  Megan Rappino, Soccer Star

19. Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.  Robert Frost, Poet  

20. You have the power within you to create a life greater than any fairy tale you’ve read.  Meghan Duchess of Sussex 

GOVERNOR DeSANTIS, SCARED OF BLACK HISTORY?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Ron DeSantis, what’s with this waging a campaign in Florida to get rid of Black history classes in schools?  I understand you have no problem with Italian culture classes (perhaps to raise up your heritage and your right to whiteness), French and Japanese culture classes too (Japanese I suppose to prove you’re not racist), but not Black history which is the heritage of a large number of people living and working in your own state.  Well, Ron, I know just why you have a fear of white kids and adults learning about Black history and I will lay some of it out for you.  However it can be stated in one sentence that will need only a little clarification.  The cruelties done by white people in this country against Black Americans are horrific beyond comprehension and the ancestors of many of the white folks in good ole Florida participated as did the ancestors of white folks all over this nation.

“What are some of those horrific cruelties,” you ask. Well, this is a challenge because the cruelties were and are so many and RATHER widespread.  Do I mention the most heinous or the most common, physical or emotional or some of each?     

Governor DeSantis, I know you don’t want to know these things because you are scared of what such knowledge might do to you even though your family was only present for some of the cruelty even if they were not directly involved, something only you and they would know.  It’s too bad you can’t imagine what such awareness could do for you, a white Christian man.  Maybe it would help if you try for a fraction of a moment to imagine the following were happening to you or people you love.  OMG!  I just realized, conservative white people in power have a hard time with empathy, even in its most basic form.  Well then, pretend it is a movie and you are one of the Black actors and see what you think.  I probably need to begin with perhaps the most difficult first.   

Africans in the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries did not choose to come to America.  They did not even pay for steerage tickets as your immigrant ancestors and most Italian immigrants did.  They were captured and sold as commodities.  That word was SOLD.  Their treatment on shipboard was so horrendous, even your movie wouldn’t be able to show it believably.  Then they were auctioned off the way one might auction off a painting or piece of furniture, men, women, and children, the survivors of the voyage and later the children of those survivors.

Life for those enslaved people was not sweet and pastoral as you probably were told in school; it was beyond inhumane yet the owners claimed to be Christians, followers of a man who was not violent, hateful, or a user of fellow human beings.  How did they justify it, they claimed they were training savages, rescuing them from a terrible life in the jungles of Africa.  They lied to themselves, and kept it up for 250 years until a war finally ended it.

The war, however, didn’t end the suffering of those Africans who over time had become Americans by virtue of their being here and the 13^th and 14^th Amendments to our Constitution.  Southern white folks just couldn’t bear those “less-than-human” former enslaved persons being free, so worked their hardest to push as many as possible back into some form of slavery by trumped-up charges to prison:  farms, mines, road-building and more, where slave labor was and is still permitted.

Then, there’s the lynching that targeted any Black person who dared to challenge a white person, talk to a white woman, or expected the rights of citizenship which were guaranteed to them in the 14^th Amendment.  More than 3,500 murders have been documented mostly throughout the South, but even in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, states whose troops had fought to free the enslaved people.  Oh, by the way, neither Federal nor state governments intervened to stop the violence and white officials often participated.

Then there’s the massacres of Black people while their communities were destroyed by white people who were angry that Black people might have anything white people didn’t approve of them having:  Wilmington, NC, East St. Louis and Chicago, IL, Greenwood in Tulsa, OK, Rosewood in Florida your own state.  The ancestors of at least some of your current supporters participated in the violence.

Over the years, Black Americans have worked to claim their rights, but white people constantly stood and stand in the way.  African-Americans were/are forced to pay outrageous rents by landlords for shacks and slum housing; share-cropped where the white landowners regularly cheated them of their share of the earnings; were redlined into narrow, poor districts and were kept there by curfews and violence, often killed or injured if they happened to be caught in the white area of town.  They couldn’t try on clothing in stores but were welcome to buy the clothes.  They couldn’t eat at lunch counters and in most restaurants and had to pick up food in the back and take it out (maybe the model for the modern take-out restaurants).  You probably also know the inhumane bathroom, water fountain, and bus ridership rules all over the former Confederacy. 

If a factory was to be built, and it was guaranteed to pollute the air or water, it was built in the Black section of town, and still is and the workers were paid wages that barely supported them and their families.  Segregation was everywhere and even permitted by law by the Supreme Court in 1896.

Ever since 1870 when Black men got the right to vote through Amendment to the Constitution, white people have been working to keep them from voting:  poll taxes, fake literacy tests, gerrymandering, voting places too far for people to get to, ID requirements with unnecessary but costly IDs, voter roll purges, and a lot more.   

During the time of enslavement, police targeted Black people even in states where slavery had been illegal for decades claiming they could be runaway slaves.  The police in many places expanded that targeting and have harassed, brutalized, and murdered Black men at far higher rates than any other group and continue to do so while the police tell us how “I was scared for my life.”  Police are rarely held accountable even when their actions have been recorded.  Juries nearly always give the police who do the killing a free pass, well, unless the officers are themselves Black as in Memphis. 

Doctors, hospitals, and other medical entities treat Black people with far less respect than they do other patients:  they don’t prescribe appropriate medications in appropriate amounts; listen poorly to patients’ descriptions of their illness; do not respond as quickly when a Black patient calls for help while in the hospital; follow inaccurate protocols assuming Black people have thicker skin and feel pain less.  Black infant and maternal death rates are higher than for any other group and seem to be rising, particularly in red states, you know the ones like yours that want to force Black women to stay pregnant putting them at significant risk of death.    

This little bit of history I have presented here is a taste of what the African-American history class you want to ban would help students consider.  The fragile little white kids of Florida wouldn’t be forced to take it, so your hype about this is disingenuous, in fact, fodder to feed the part of your base you keep stoking to be hateful and fearful of people of color, in this case, Black Americans.  That is so un-Christian in case you don’t know it.  Lying about a course you have not studied or even read the syllabus for should be beneath a  leader, but lately, Republicans have scooped up some of the most hateful, fearful, human beings and put them on the stage to whip up more hate and fear to turn it into anger against the people you have decided you don’t like or have power you think is undeserved. 

The other side of the African-American history of this country includes the men who built the Capitol in Washington, DC and most likely in the other states too, laid a lot of the rail lines and roads, carved woodwork and built furniture, wrote and published poetry, taught in schools and colleges, painted and sculpted, sang, composed,  and performed incredible music, made fashionable gowns as well as everyday clothing from sheering the sheep to processing the cotton by hand, made delicious food from whatever ingredients they could grow or find.  In short, they were masters of nearly every craft and skill in our country throughout history.

Black Americans fought in our war for Independence in an integrated army and navy.  They also fought in all the rest of our many wars, usually in segregated units that did the construction, clean-up, burials, and cooking for the troops.  Or, they were sent into the thickest of the fighting.  Black troops won the highest honor bestowed by France for their bravery and persistence in saving the French people during WWI.  In our volunteer military forces, Black soldiers, sailors, Marines, and Coast Guards make up a higher proportion of the troops than their percentage in our society as a whole.  

Governor DeSantis, Black Americans do not deserve your scorn.  They don’t deserve your dismissal either.  African-Americans deserve respect and courses that deeply look at their history and contributions.  The action you and your Education official have taken is racist and very childish.  The adult thing to do now would be for you both to apologize to Black Floridians and approve the course, although I don’t see why you should have any say in which AP courses a district offers.  Is that just another of your invasions into areas you should not have entered, right along with your insults of the LGBTQ+ communities.  I am guessing you don’t care.  I can’t help but think you lost your humanity somewhere.  It would truly be a good idea for you to go looking for it.  The apology for your bad behavior related to the African-American History course and getting out of a decision about an AP class would be a good start.

Here are a few books that could help you learn about the immense strength and persistence of the African-American community.  I am sure if you had any Black assistants, they could recommend more.  Even if you were to read them, I doubt they would change your perception of Black Americans, but it might awaken a tiny spark in your conscience.

Under the Skin, the Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and the Health of Our Nation  by Linda Villarosa

At the Hands of Persons Unknown by Phillip Dray 

The East St. Louis Massacre, The Greatest Outrage of the Century, 1917  by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

FIFTY YEARS ON

 By Ruth A. Sheets

January 22, 2023 marks 50 years since the Supreme Court in a 7-2 vote ruled the right to abortion is constitutional.  They assumed women had a right to bodily autonomy although they didn’t call it that.  They understood the Constitution permitted women, as well as men, to make decisions about their own bodies and future.  Unfortunately, over the years, conservatives who needed an issue to pump their supporters up to a ridiculous frenzy on their way to power, clamped onto the issue of abortion which over time expanded to include women’s  rights in general.

A bit over a century before the Roe v. Wade decision, the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church declared abortion anathema, not the exact words, but close enough.  The supposed reason was to save women’s lives since abortion could be dangerous.  Women were not seen as much, so the Church had to couch its decision in god language, a mortal sin to have an abortion.  With five Catholic conservative justices on our Supreme Court, their task is clear, stop abortions at all costs in god’s name.  The Church orders it. 

A decade earlier, in 1857, a  Harvard-educated New England doctor, needed an issue to prove how important and professional he as a doctor was.  Horatio Robinson Storer settled on abortion as that issue and began his crusade against women and the midwives who supported women’s reproductive needs.  Through Storer’s efforts, abortion went from being a non-issue to becoming one of the most contentious issues of the second half of the 19^th century, and women had essentially no say in it.  Few states or territories had laws against abortion before Storer came on the scene, but by 1900 nearly every state did. 

Storer and others as time passed, all men of course, had little or no evidence that midwives were incapable of caring for women’s reproductive needs, or that abortion was so terrible.  It didn’t matter, he was a medical man and at the time doctors (nearly all white men of course) were trying to be established as the authorities on everything related to health, including women’s bodies.

Moves against abortion began  three-quarters of a century after our Constitution was ratified.  The founders most likely never even thought of abortion and considered anything beyond their brief participation in begetting a child to be women’s work and promptly ignored it, well unless a baby was born, then he could claim it as his property. 

Were Alito and the other anti-Roe justices aware of this?  Did they even care?  I suspect they knew and had to find a legal justification from before our nation’s founding they could use to do what they had intended to do all along.  Alito et al should be ashamed of their choices of  law-makers to cite, OK and to even overturn a precedent with no pressing need.  But, when one’s goal is in reach, any argument will do.   That’s particularly true if you know you can’t be challenged.  The expectation of infallibility on the part of the conservative justices lately is disturbing.

Right now, the Supreme Court seems to be walking on the edge of a cliff.  They could listen to the American people and start ruling in our favor or keep moving closer to being blown off the cliff where they will no longer be seen as relevant.  This past year, the six told states they had limited ability to restrict gun ownership, yet told states they can restrict a woman’s right to abortion.  Essentially they said, “white men, get a gun to use if you are scared” (white men seem to be scared all the time), but women, you have no right to your own body if a bunch of white men in state legislatures say you don’t.  Yes, racism and misogyny are alive and well on our Supreme Court and there is no evidence a remedy is at hand.  Women of color and poor women will suffer most, as usual.

Restricting abortion is cruel.  It condemns women and children to carry a pregnancy whether it is the right thing for them or not.  Who gets to decide, mostly rich, straight white men in power and their female surrogates.  The men will never get pregnant and the surrogates want the trickle-down of power they may get agreeing with powerful men.  Those women and some men have been brainwashed to believe their god is against abortion.  If that were true, wouldn’t one expect that Jesus would have said something about it.  If He had, it would have been recorded and passed down.  He didn’t and It wasn’t.

As so many feminists of all races, creeds, and nationalities have said for years, women should  have the sole decision of whether to maintain a pregnancy, with no interference from legislators at any level.  And if one listens carefully to the anti-choice faction, their “reasons” to force women and children to remain pregnant are undemocratic (since more than 60% of the population supports the right of women to seek abortion with few or no restrictions).  

So, let’s see, a collection of rich, white, straight men and their surrogates oppose abortion so women are condemned to carry fetuses to term, held as criminals if they have a miscarriage, losing their lives while waiting to be sick enough – close enough to death to have an abortion, seen as criminals to be jailed if they use chemical abortion aids or leave the state to get an abortion, jailed to force the woman to continue a pregnancy.  That sounds like a kind of involuntary servitude, vulnerable women trapped in a system that has denied their rights and freedoms for a set of religious beliefs in a nation whose Constitution declares there will be no establishment of religion. 

A few years back, I learned about a group of women in Chicago in the late 1960s who called themselves “The Janes.”  They were heroes, women and a few men who saw a need and worked to figure out how to provide abortion services to thousands of women.  Finally, they were betrayed by someone who just had to prove she was a handmaid of god or something.  The prosecutions never went anywhere, though because of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

We need “Janes” everywhere in our country now, doing everything they can to help women who need a termination to a pregnancy.  We need a network (possibly secret) of people who can distribute abortion pills and transport women to abortion clinics.  We need brave doctors who will help the few women for whom the pills don’t work properly.  We need courageous doctors, nurses, and midwives who can provide abortions after the 11^th week and those who step up and provide appropriate care for women in medical crisis so women won’t have to come close to death to get help.  We need prosecutors who will dismiss abortion cases unless there is actual evidence of wrong-doing by a provider.  We will require judges on federal courts at all levels that will dismiss cases brought by people against women who have gotten an abortion.  In short, we need some courage throughout our nation.  I know some exists, but there needs to be more.

Then, those of us who do not have a medical bent need to keep calling out Republicans and others for their disinformation and hypocrisy of wanting forced birth while providing absolutely no services to help the women who don’t even have the wherewithal to pay for prenatal care or giving birth.  Republicans whine in protest at being called racists and misogynists while regularly demonstrating racism and misogyny. 

We the People should also take turns when we can to be present at abortion and other health care facilities where anti-abortion folks are jeering, taunting patients, and lying through their many times magnified supposed pictures of abortions.  We have left the ground to them when we should have been there more openly.  We can also heavily support candidates in every district, every community who believe women have the right to whatever health care they need, including abortion.  Ditch the toddler-adult candidates who can’t see past their own “beliefs” to let others have theirs.  We the People can do this! 

And so, the challenge for us 50 years on is knowing the anti-women, anti-everyone who is not rich, straight, white, and male movement will continue working to hurt us all if not thwarted.  They will pass archaic laws and work to enforce them no matter who is harmed.  That is cruel, but cruelty is their point.  We the People can stop this if we work together as the Janes did 50+ years ago!