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!