A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR 2022

By Ruth A. Sheets

Each week, Dr. Robert Reich former Department of Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton and Economics Professor, asks a challenging question for members of his Substack thread to answer.  On September 14, 2022, he asked why we thought Republicans had decided to push for a nation-wide abortion ban so close to the November election.   He posed a few possible answers for us to consider:  to respond to evangelical voters, to deflect attention from Trump, because GOP leaders are clueless, and because GOP leaders are misogynists.  One would have thought Lindsay Graham and his crew would have waited until after the upcoming election to push their national abortion ban bill, but they didn’t.  They are now saying aloud what was only implied before. They want our federal government to control women’s bodies. 

The following is my response to Dr. Reich’s question.  Note, Dr. Reich “liked” my comment and I hope you will too.

“My answer is, ‘ALL OF THE ABOVE’ plus, those Republicans are trying to look more powerful to their fundamentalist and Catholic male base. Those guys are so scared of women they will agree to just about anything to keep women out of their colleges and workplaces. They want women pregnant, barefoot, and silent in the home ready to take care of every need of their child-man husband/partner who wants to pretend we are still living in the Medieval days when men could rule at home, if nowhere else and could do whatever he wanted to do to his wife (woman) and kids.” 

“I recently heard a whine by Doug Mastriano running for Governor of PA. He said ‘bodily autonomy was a joke.’ He meant, and so does Lindsay Graham (the biggest misogynist in the Senate, well, maybe not the biggest) women’s bodily autonomy is a joke.” 

I continued, “I say it is time for equality. If men can control women's bodily autonomy, women should be able to control men's. Therefore, I have a modest proposal. 

1. After the birth of a man's 3rd child, he has 2 weeks to get to a doctor for a vasectomy. We are in a climate crisis which includes overpopulation. Women can go in hired groups to pick up the men who don't show up. The child's births can be DNA tested and the males identified. 

2. An honestly convicted rapist (proven by DNA and a reliable witness, not by his race, will be taken to a hospital or clinic and castrated immediately after the sentencing. His actual sentence might be reduced if his behavior and attitude are improved by the surgery. That would include men who rape other prisoners in jail. 

If men actually had some skin in the game and stopped putting the blame for their own bad behavior on women or trying to get people to ignore it altogether (Kavanaugh), bodily autonomy for all would be the law of the land and no Supreme Court conservative majority  could mess with it. Until then, we the people need to act. Scared white conservative men should not be able to control anyone's body but their own.” 

I heard from a few members of the thread that my “modest proposal” was a bit harsh.  Hmmm!  My response to them was  that women were potentially sacrificing more than those men would due to male anti-abortion laws,   even death.  I have never heard of a man dying of vasectomy or castration, but of many women dying due to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum complications.  I do believe my “modest proposal” is reasonable and fair.  

Now how do I get my proposal into law as quickly as Republican white men (and the women who love them) got their woman-hating laws passed in the Confederacy and confederate wannabee states after our Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade?  The Catholic conservative majority gave them a giant push, than they often reached back more than 150 years to scrape up laws that forbid abortions, from a time when men were so desperate to keep women/midwives out of medicine they passed laws they couldn’t     actually prosecute because most abortions were performed in secret and men, even doctors had no idea what women were doing for each other.  

The Arizona law they are chasing was passed before Arizona was even a state.  How is that even allowed?  So, white male misogynistic racists today will go after the women they fear and hate with ancient laws that were misogynistic at the time they were passed and are still.  They threaten violence for women who don’t submit to keeping a pregnancy they either don’t want or is dangerous to their health or the survival of the fetus.  They imprison pregnant women claiming “for the benefit of the ‘child.’”  They care nothing for the fetuses except that they can use them as a whining point supposedly showing their “love of life” while every other action of those folks’ lives points to anything but love and life, and no new laws have been passed in those states to help the host, the fetus, or the forced-birth baby.

Yep, we need my “modest proposal” to let those particular ignorant hateful white men who think they should be able to control women, feel something of what is like to have someone, not yourself, forcibly mess with your body and your reproduction.  Come on women and men who care, let’s get this done.

TRUMP’S “MAKE AMERICA GAG AGAIN” TOUR

By Ruth A. Sheets

I recently heard someone reconfigure MAGA from Trump’s words to “Make America Gag Again” ( and now, I just can’t hear MAGA any other way.  Donald Trump and his cult love being referred to as MAGAs but might not if we the people started publicly calling it “Make America Gag Again.”  And gag is what so many of us do when we recall Donald Trump’s speeches and tweets. 

Last week, I received a list of some of Trump’s best-known contributions to the collection of American quotes, and have decided to comment on them with what comes to my mind when I read them, remembering the past 7 years of the torture we have endured with him in the news every day whether he had something of value to contribute to our society or not, and it is usually not. 

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." – This is probably Trump’s best known quote which is funny since he is a coward and wouldn’t have the nerve to shoot anyone.  He prefers insulting people and setting his sycophantic doggies on the people he doesn’t like and getting them to do the “shooting.”.

“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."  What a joke!  He would have a hard time even finding the southern border on a map and has no idea what is involved in building a wall.  And, there is no way a country poorer than ours would be able to afford it if they even wanted a wall.  I marked his words and dismissed them as ignorance.

When asked if he believed in punishment for abortion, he responded incoherently, of course.  By the way, he just couldn’t give a yes or no answer.  “The answer is there has to be some form of punishment.” (for the woman?) “Yeah, there has to be some form.”  He clearly had no idea what he was talking about, but that was and is his modus operandi.

“Kim Jong-Un speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”  And who are “my people” for Trump?  His cult already does that.  If you are not sure, look at Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz.  The rest of us will never do that.

“In life you have to rely on the past, and that’s called history.”  One can marvel at Trump’s brilliance, but shouldn’t!

“I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”  Of course Trump won’t be taking care of the kids or taking them anywhere.  He is too self-absorbed for that.  Besides they were too young to be used effectively.  Thirty-five years old or so works much better.  Besides responsibility just isn’t Trump’s thing.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries coming here?”  Oh my, Donnie, your racism is showing, but you don’t care, do you!  You know there are enough racists in your cult that they will love you no matter what you call those countries and their people.

“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me - consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected."  Like so many men, Trump thinks he is god’s gift to womankind.  I have news for you Donnie, if they flirted with you at all and that is not likely, they were hoping to get some of your money and influence that can come from them knowing you. 

“Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault."  OK, one can tell when a person has gone off the deep end when he feels he has to boast of intelligence he doesn’t actually have.  The “gift” he does have is the ability to lie about anything, including intelligence.  The media claimed that Trump lied in public more than 30,000 times while in office.  Not everyone can lie that often and still have people believe him, and he does have a strong cult following. 

“Just tried watching Modern Family - written by a moron, really boring. Writer has the mind of a very dumb and backward child. Sorry Danny!"  Wow!  It takes one to know one, right, Donnie!  It seems you can recognize a fellow childish guy.  Sorry Donnie!

“While @BetteMidler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always insist on being politically correct."  OK, Politically correct is something Donald Trump will never be.  Hey Donald, your misogyny is showing.  You don’t know what that means?  Get one of your lawyers to look it up for you.  Isn’t that what you pay them for, or one of the things?

"@arianahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man - he made a good decision."  And you would know anything about relationships Donnie?

“[John McCain is]... not a war hero. He's a war hero - he's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I Like people that weren't captured, OK, I hate to tell you."  It is interesting that a coward would have the nerve to criticize someone who survived years as a POW in Vietnam when Trump didn’t serve due to bone spurs or some other rich man’s condition.  No shame?

“I'm the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody's ever been more successful than me. I'm the most successful person ever to run. Ross Perot isn't successful like me. Romney - I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney."  Can we say oblivious?  Naturally, Trump can’t name what he is actually successful with – bankruptcy, marriages, gold toilets, what?  He is comparing himself to Perot and Romney, not exactly the best presidential candidates, and they didn’t win the popular vote either. 

“If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?"  Oh Donnie, you think satisfying one’s partner makes one able to satisfy the nation.  That definitely explains why you were not reelected.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."  No comment here would do Trump’s ignorant statement justice.

“Stand back and stand by (to the Proud Boys and other insurrectionists).  Yes an insurrectionist who needs to be indicted for it.  Republicans in the Senate were too cowardly to convict Trump, but the courts should do better.

“Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way."  Oh Donnie, you think just because you weigh more than Biden, you could take him down?  You definitely lie better than he does, though, and remember, Donnie, courage is not your best thing.

These are only a few of the appalling statements made by a president of the United States.  He received around 74 million votes in the 2020 election.  He incited an insurrection, stole documents that belong to the American people, tried to steal elections and claimed other people were committing fraud, and is simply, a despicable person.

After reading the above quotes how could anyone believe this guy? It takes a lot of dodging reality to continue supporting a man who is so unaware of everyone but himself, and I suspect his self-awareness isn’t strong either.  The man who gave me the quotes wrote he would go on an Apology Tour if he had voted for Trump.  There are a lot of Republicans who should be on such an apology tour for putting that amoral man, Donald Trump in the most prestigious job in our country.

NOTE:  Quotes compiled by Keith Olson, Thank you!

WHO ARE THE HEROES?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Last evening, I finished reading a book called Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown.  The book was filled with heroes who would have been heroes had they just suffered the imprisonment and insults done to them by the American government and people all over this country, but they did far more.  Who are these particular heroes?  They are the between 110 and 120thousand Japanese-Americans who after Pearl Harbor, were imprisoned in “internment camps” (really concentration camps) in the most god-awful places that could be found in the United States.

Why were they “interned,” you might ask?  A couple of military guys decided it would be a way to get rid of Japanese men, women, and children from the West Coast because the Japanese had attacked our naval base in Hawaii.  With absolutely no evidence whatsoever, they accused people of Japanese descent of being a threat to our nation’s security, working for Japan to bring down our country.  In short, they made it up and even got President Roosevelt and Governor Earl Warren of California to go along with the ruse.  In 1944, even the Supreme Court shamefully agreed the “internment” was OK.

Men, women, and children, even disabled orphans, were forced from their homes into holding pens (race tracks and other public places) until the camps could be readied.  They were forced to sell what they could to white neighbors who offered pennies for valuable household items, even homes and businesses were sold cheap.  The people were permitted to take only what they could carry and were sent by bus and train to deserts, mountainous wastelands, swamps, and other nasty places those military guys located as quickly as possible. 

When the people, most of whom were American citizens, arrived, they were met with barbed wire enclosing rows of hastily constructed barracks with tar paper roofs that barely kept out the weather.  Each family had a number and was forced to live in a small section of one of those barracks, to wait hours in line for almost inedible food, shower and use the bathroom with no privacy, and have machine guns pointed at them 24 hours a day, every day as though they were criminals.  A couple of men who couldn’t take it anymore, tried to leave one of the camps and were shot down.

I describe this because I knew nothing about these concentration camps in my own country until I was out of college.  Somehow, even my class on World War II never covered the “internment.”  I learned about it through a movie.  I thought it was fiction.  My country as bad as it could be would never have done that to citizens!  I had been told the reason they wouldn’t allow Black people to be citizens was because then they couldn’t be enslaved.  That’s what I thought until I read an article about one family’s experience of the camps, around 1977. 

I knew about the Japanese-American troops that fought in Italy.  There was even a “McHale’s Navy” episode about them.  I thought they were Japanese-American soldiers who just happened to make up a unit.  When I finally found out that many of them were from the camps, I was shocked!  Why would anyone treated so badly even consider fighting for the country that did it?  Well, that’s what I mean about doing more.  Many of the imprisoned Japanese men volunteered to join the army when the opportunity came.  They usually said they wanted a chance to prove they were truly Americans.  Japanese Hawaiians had not been interned for the most part, so didn’t know what their mainland brothers had suffered until they met in basic training.  Some men from the camps who did not agree to join were imprisoned in jails or at the worst of the camps for refusing.

Training took place in Mississippi, an environment very different from anything the recruits had experienced previously.  They put up with the bugs, mud, alligators, and racism of Mississippi and developed into an incredible fighting force.  When they got to Italy, they experienced some of the worst fighting of the war.  They famously saved a Texas regiment, used stealth to sneak up on entrenched German soldiers, climbed mountains in the dark to destroy artillery placements, helped liberate German concentration camps, and far more.  Their casualties were high.

Despite all that, their actions were only fully recognized in 2012 when President Obama gave 20 additional Congressional Medals of Honor to members of the 442nd regiment (one such medal had been awarded during the war).  They were the most highly decorated unit in US history.  The men who had been treated like criminals, who saw their families, even parents treated like animals, how were they able to have experienced all this, yet put their lives on the line for the United States? 

The men’s families were not idle at the camps.  They created gardens to grow fresh food; set up baseball diamonds, football fields, basketball courts, and formed teams; opened schools for the children and held classes for adults who wanted to add to their skills; produced all kinds of art; taught dancing; worked on farms miles away just to get out of the camps for a while; in short, created community where there had been nothing.  They were heroes who made a life for themselves and their children under appalling conditions.    

I know a bunch of scared white folks would like this part of our history forgotten just as they want their ancestors’ treatment of Black Americans, our indigenous peoples, Hispanic citizens, and immigrants wiped from the history books.  I suspect that if they knew about it, they would want Mr. Brown’s book banned along with the many others that cover aspects of those shameful years.  Well, they can ban all they want, but their “precious” not so fragile kids will learn about these things because whether the parents want to acknowledge it or not, they are part of the larger community that is the United States of America, not the white states of America.  Maybe, it is time the children should lead them.  Hey kids, we need some heroes.  You could be the ones we need, the ones who will lead your scared parents into the light of knowledge and freedom from conservatives who would prefer them to remain ignorant.  Help them to see that you are not fragile and want to know about the many different people who make up this country.  Girls and boys, you’ve got this!

THE RELIGIOUS WHITE RIGHT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Republicans today want power!  They want money too, and they want whiteness to be supreme (Jesus was white, you know, or so they believe). 

Many Republican leaders who still claim to be Christian, have bought into a "prosperity gospel" which tells them if they are rich and powerful, they deserve it; god did it for them.  They aren’t concerned with how they got there, because they believe they are truly in God’s favor, God was guiding them through their business life, their legal duties, their use of family riches, etc., so if they “sneaked” a bit from someone or didn’t pay employees what they earned a few times, or skipped taxes, or lied about an opponent, God knew and it was OK because God had forgiven them, right?  Isn’t it interesting that with this kind of “prosperity gospel,” God seems to only forgive them for their deeds, not others involved in the same practices?  And, whatever they don’t like is disliked by God, and therefore, a sin to be opposed at every opportunity. 

The new prosperity gospelers don’t really care what traditional Christianity believes or does because they regularly get revelations from God and anyone who gets in their way is a sinner, the enemy.  Not in the Bible?  Of course it is, you just have to read it right! 

The “Christian” white right’s efforts are moving toward making sure their beliefs become the law of the land.  That’s what they want to believe is God’s will, and they will get to be in charge of “god’s will.” 

Currently, we have at least 4 members of the Supreme Court and numerous members of Congress and even more members of state legislatures on board with this effort.  Theirs is a fanatical religious evolution that took about 45 years to fully develop.  Republicans and conservatives were having trouble getting traction for their message after Watergate, so needed something to motivate themselves and others of their kind:  white, straight, male, “Christians.”  The one issue that had potential was the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade.  Abortion!  What a great idea!  Claim abortion was a horrific sin, murdering a baby in the womb.  How dare those sluts do something so terrible.  I bet God doesn’t like that.  They also knew they had to get some loud-mouthed women on board or a lot of women would have ignored the men.  Phyllis Schlafly was perfect for the job.  And, as a power-obsessed lawyer, she knew just how to reach and manipulate vulnerable women who were scared of the changes feminism was bringing about.  All these years later, the pieces were in place.  

The Conservatives on the Supreme Court this year just knew this was the time to dump Roe v. Wade despite precedent, despite a majority of Americans not wanting it overturned, despite having no real argument to support the decision, they said “OK states, do your best,” and they did.  There is now chaos throughout the Confederacy and the confederate wannabee states.  The most the conservative court under the pen of Justice Alito  could do was claim abortion wasn’t in the Constitution, so it wasn’t protected by it.  That, of course is nonsense, especially when the only sources for Alito’s argument were Medieval white men who were misogynists, just like the Court’s conservatives.  Neat, huh! 

The prosperity gospelers claim the 1^st Amendment gives them the right to force their Christian beliefs on this country because the founders wanted it to be a Christian nation.  These folks have no idea, nor care, what the founders intended regarding religion.  Even if they knew that many of the founders were Deists or held religious beliefs they didn't share publicly is irrelevant to them.  The Bill of Rights declares no establishment of religion in the first amendment, but folks like Justice Barrett see all that as just words she doesn't have to follow because she has god's ear (or some other irrelevance) and her super-Catholic cult lets her know what God wants for this country, prosperity gospel Christianity where the haves have because God likes them better than God likes the have-nots.  Conservative Christian faith does not include folks who don't believe what they do, rather childish, but just what one might expect.  One’s personal religion shouldn’t be involved in any decision-making by our courts, but alas, the conservative justices don’t care about the oath they swore, it was just their way into a lucrative job for life.

I just read an article by Dennis Prager in “townhall.com, (a very right-wing site), called “Why Are So Many Young Americans Irreligious?  The Secular Brainwashing is the First Reason.”  As you can imagine, the article is full of the usual anti-left stuff regularly pumped out by conservatives:  “can’t say ‘Merry Christmas (happy holidays), can’t have Christmas parties or Christmas break” (holiday party, winter break).  Young people have abandoned religion because of the anti-religion stance “the power of the dominant secular culture, the failure of faithful Christians (and Jews) to properly explain their religion to the young, and every public institution has been made ‘god-free.’”  Ridiculous! 

The author whines on that schools don’t refer to god and the Bible and actually hold both in contempt.  (I must have mist that one.)  He claims also with no evidence that religion is held by public schools to be an impediment to children’s learning.  The article continues on in that vein claiming it is brainwashing on the left that has turned young people from religion.  In schools mentioning other faiths is permitted, but not Christianity (of course, not true).  He whines that inside and outside home, religion is disparaged, again with no evidence, just his personal feeling or the claim of his church.

He wraps the article up saying that this “post-Christian age” has been “the bloodiest” in history.  This man has no clue.  Most Nazis were Christian and Stalin and Mao were Communists.  Together they were responsible for more deaths than anything since.  Unfortunately, Prager has folks out there who believe his manufactured “truths,” and will try to use them to push religious fundamentalism on our country.  Prager said young people aren’t religious, so in his new order, are they supposed to be forced into religion?  If so, who is going to do that?  And, what about the people who are Christian or not Christian who don’t want religion thrown in their faces every day?

Besides, young people from all backgrounds have been witness lately, to a whole lot of bad behavior on the part of conservative Christians in power.  They have seen women losing bodily autonomy, just because.  They have seen LGBTQ persons threatened with the loss of their human rights.  They saw an insurgency by white Christians who tried to take over our government on behalf of a non-religious man.  They have seen hospitals refuse to treat women in crisis because a fetus is seen as more valuable than the woman carrying it.  They have seen white Christian police officers shoot down or suffocate Black men.  They have experienced the presidency of a man those conservative Christians revere who cheats, lied over 30,000 times in public while in office, then stole secret documents from the White House while he was leaving.  In short, if that is Christianity, what would entice young people to want a part of it? 

I am a person of faith and do believe the Christianity of the social gospel has something to offer young people, but it is not my role to force anyone to choose or reject Christianity or any other religion. 

People of faith need to stand more forcefully for church and state being separate strands in life, maybe, each supporting but not dominating the other.  We need to talk about it more and why the separation is essential. 

There is a move in some more liberal churches to go back to some kind of heavier embrace of scripture, I guess to prove our faith is as real as Justice Barrett’s seems to be.  I do not approve.  The scriptures of any religion can give guidance, but they have definite limitations, particularly when they are nit-picked to glean pearls to “cast before swine.”  

I and many others are  advocates for a social gospel that is inclusive, accepting, and requires us to increase people's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of opportunity.  What I believe guides my life but I don't need other people to believe what I do as Justice Barrett, the other conservatives on the Supreme Court, and their ilk do.  We who are for separation need to speak up often and clearly that we don’t want public religious demonstrations when they are coercive and just for show as that school coach’s 50 yard line BS was.  When we see that nonsense, we need to interrupt with more positive activities, like maybe a drum circle or a quick concert of love songs that will drown out their stuff.  They will still be able to do their thing as Justice Barrett and her kin want, but it will be positively challenged by the much larger coalition of people who value religious freedom, that is freedom to believe or not believe and even more important, freedom not to be dictated to by an extreme Supreme Court or anyone else. 

DO WE HAVE COURAGE?

By Ruth A. Sheets

I was just watching a program on MSNBC that brought up an issue related to banned abortion states that I had not thought of before, and I am sure the ignorant state legislators who voted so quickly to ban abortions didn’t either.  

Many women have chronic medical conditions that require drugs that could either cause miscarriage or birth defects.  Doctors are now telling women on these drugs they have to be on birth control because if they get pregnant, the doctor couldn’t help them for fear of losing their job or being arrested.  What!

Yep, we’ve entered the age when ignorant, mostly white men, can decide if people live or die due to laws Republican legislators passed and were signed by Republican governors with no consideration for what that would do to real women, not the fantasy women they imagine controlling through their laws.  

I suggest that the doctors of those states, and there are a bunch of those states now, should refuse to treat any member of the state legislature and governor who voted for those laws, and their families too.  Make them have to go elsewhere for care.  Tell them “you wouldn’t want a potential criminal treating you, so you will have to move on.  Maybe when you vote to give women back their bodily autonomy and stop seeing me as a potential criminal, you can come back.  Until then, someone somewhere else can help you.”  Hey, a kind of “strike!”  Oh yes, the “strike” would have to be all doctors even in hospitals and urgent care places unless it is a life-or-death emergency, just like the situation they are consigning the women of their state to.

Some doctors just love these anti-woman laws, so those legislators, et al can find those guys. I suspect it won’t be long before some misogynists who claim to love fetuses more than the women who host them will start making some changes to their laws.  They may pass laws to force doctors to treat everyone, but then, they will have to treat folks who can’t afford their services and the state will have to provide the funds.  Can’t have that!  Maybe they’ll pass laws to arrest any doctor who won’t treat them.  I’m sure ALEC and Republican lawyers will come up with something despicable.  One thing I know, you can’t force someone to care, e.g. the Republican legislators.  

The problem, is there courage to actually do anything?  Without a public push, doctors just won’t.  Their fear in some ways is legitimate because right- wingers are scary, running around with guns and words like “murderer,” shouted into a huge megaphone.  Maybe a well-publicized doctors’ strike would be powerful and not what the Right expects.  Doctors are supposed to follow any law to the letter, aren’t they?  I’m thinking one or two states to start with, then . . . .

I have been thinking about the recent US visit of Victor Orban, Hungary’s autocratic leader and remember the lack of courage of the Republicans at the big Texas gathering.  They did not stand up for this country and our freedom.  They spent time listening to, cheering for, and admiring a leader who has stolen power in his country by disrupting the judicial system and slyly taking away people’s rights while telling them how wonderful they are and how awful the invaders are, tainting the blood of “real Europeans” by intermixing.  That sounds so much like the propaganda of the 1930s Nazis it made me shiver, and it should have made everyone in the room in Houston shiver too.  It didn’t.  They were caught up in the euphoria of imagining a “white America where they would rule and everyone else would either be gone or in some way enslaved to them.  I could tell by their cheering, almost screaming, they were practically orgasmic.  I have heard nothing since the event that indicated any Republican protest of having an autocrat getting more cheers than our own president (I mean Biden), a man who helped keep COVID from being even worse than losing well over a million people, financially supported families during the pandemic, got infrastructure passed that will help everyone, pushed Congress to pass some kind of sensible gun safety regulation, worked to get drug prices down for Medicare users (it would have been for more folks but too few Republicans cared enough to vote for it), pushed for measures to stop global warming, and more.  For them, Biden doesn’t deserve as much appreciation as a foreign dictator. 

Liz Cheyney has a lot of guts.  She identified Donald Trump for the con artist he is and refused to go along with Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, Ron DiSantis, and the rest of the Republican joy of dictatorship club, particularly since she took an oath to uphold and defend our Constitution (which those others did too).  I do not agree with her positions on most things, but I recognize courage when I see it, and she has it.  Yet, she is about to be voted off the island by Republicans in Wyoming.  She helped them to get stuff they need for their decaying infrastructure and older citizens, but she didn’t fawn and drool over Trump as she was supposed to.  The person likely to replace her is not nearly as strong and has little courage as far as I can tell, but “gotta get that traitor Cheyney out.”

I used to think we the people were living in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”  Well, maybe not as much as we would like.  Our freedoms are gushing away each time our Supreme Court drops a decision and one political party can’t find courage to stand up to would-be dictators.  Fortunately, there are people who do want us to continue working to become “a more perfect union.”  

We all need to remember that we have a lot of courage floating around and all kinds of people have it.  However, a bunch of scared folks are fearmongering, threatening, and otherwise making life difficult for a lot of people, and it is time more of us locate our courage and stand up to it.

Here are some of the most courageous people I know about.  They put their values, even their lives on the line for others and take an ordinary salary home for it, or just have the knowledge they are making a difference. 

- the front-line workers who cared for people with COVID when Trump and Kump didn’t get protective gear to them.  They stuck with it until they got sick or burned out, then when they recovered, most went right back at it.  

- the firefighters all over the country who are trying to hold the line on the massive wildfires that global warming is igniting.  Those dealing with the massive floods are pretty brave too.

- teachers who did their best to be sure that children were able to learn what was required despite being at home while COVID raged.  Every day, they are working with our kids, but teaching online has challenges most teachers had not previously faced.

- workers who care for people who face mental illnesses of all kinds and the challenges of aging, despite being overworked and understaffed, show up for their shift every day and do their best.   

- people who live with serious chronic illnesses, yet just keep on moving, caring for others, raising their children or grandchildren, and keeping the world turning

- workers who accompany abortion-seekers through the angry protesters who have no clue what the women they are maligning are going through as they wrap themselves in some warped sense of righteousness.

- children who stand up to bullies on behalf of a classmate, friend, or stranger.

- And more!

See what I mean, there is a lot of courage, it’s just ignored when the fearful, the conservatives trying to conserve a time and conditions that never existed constantly have the spotlight on them and their bad behavior. 

Maybe each of us needs to pledge to be more courageous, make our voice heard when we see a wrong, even if it is a risk.  Think of the kids in Birmingham, AL who faced police dogs and fire hoses aimed at them.  Think of the students who protested until a terrible, unjust war was stopped.  Think of the people who came here to this country looking for a better, safer life who faced all kinds of struggles and discrimination.  Consider the Capitol police who held off January 6th insurrectionists until help could get to them, saving the lives of our elected officials.  Those were ordinary people like us.  Their efforts can show us the way.  

Letting poorly informed elected officials decide what our rights will be and who can have them is unacceptable and should be for every American.  We can start with courage in little things, like informed voting in every election, not accepting sexual or any other kind of harassment in the workplace, calling on our religious institutions to live their faith, etc., then branch out.  Let’s foster courage when our kids are young.  It’s a good habit, and we are going to need it throughout the next few decades.

TOO MUCH TESTOSTERONE OR SOMETHING

By Ruth A. Sheets

Wow!  2022 is turning out to be another year of mostly white male abuse of power.  This year we have men working really hard to take away our right to vote; to put women even more under male control by banning abortion, criminalizing miscarriages and crossing state borders for reproductive care, and planning to ban contraception; invading and preparing to invade neighboring countries (Ukraine by Russia and Taiwan by China); continuing and accelerating greenhouse gas emissions; pouring guns into our communities; and using religion (Christianity in particular) to justify their moves to take away our rights. 

We seem to have tacitly agreed to let men decide that when they want something it is OK for them to kill, cheat, steal, lie, and commit atrocities of all kinds to get it.  Why did we women and men do that?

I suspect it is some men's big mouths, big size (even if just in their heads), and strength that let them get away with so much.  The rest of us are so busy with family, career or just survival to notice their bad behavior until it is too late.  I think this group of power-hungry men is hoping that banning abortion, suppressing voting, etc. will keep us in this country distracted indefinitely so they can take over, then do what, that is unclear, perhaps make themselves even richer and the rest of us poorer?

Here and in other countries too, it is not enough to control women and decent men, they have to recruit often vulnerable women who will follow their actions hoping to get a piece of the testosterone pie, big fish in a small pond.  These women can be even more misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and racist than the mostly white men who direct them.  Their patriarchal intensity is their effort to prove their Bonafides.  After all, there were white women gazing in rapture at public lynchings too.

I believe there are some things we can and should do to end or move to end the patriarchal usurpation of power and violence that has scarred our world for millennia:

• We must raise our male children with less violence and less acceptance of pushy disrespectful behavior.  Significant community resources should be employed to help families and their boys who are struggling with their behavior and inability to be with other kids without bullying, before the problems get too bad.
• We need to raise our children to know their value and not accept coercive disrespectful male behavior from anyone.  Girls need to know that finding a man is not their primary goal in life.
• We must help our children grow into the gender (or lack of gender) that reflects who they are and rejoice with them when they truly know.
• We should finance research on safe medications for men that can tamp down or disperse the violent tendencies that keep getting people killed and women raped, just because, then administer it secretly if necessary to stop the violence.

-Seriously lower military budgets.  If the money and weapons aren’t there, war is made a bit harder.  This will be tough because war is like a team sport and we have a tendency to root for our team no matter what havoc it causes. 

- We will need to find safer ways for men to prove their manhood.  Sports work for some, but for those who need a more dangerous structure, the military has worked.  However, it is the military that caused a lot of the patriarchal problems over the years.  We need a different approach.

-Better regulations on corporations, their size, and practices and the amount CEOs can earn in relation to their median worker’s salary would help decrease the power the corporation and its usually male CEO holds. 

- Nationally requiring practices like automatic voter registration, vote by mail, ending gerrymandering, limiting financial donations to any candidate at all levels, a reasonable amount for the specific position would stop a lot of the male posturing and corruption. 

- Recommit ourselves to the First Amendment of our Constitution including freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion.  Men have ruled most religions of the world and religious power has given men all kinds of permission to act badly, often in the name of god.

- Reconfigure our understanding of police and law-enforcement in general:  what should it be and do, who should be employed in the work, what should they wear and how should they get around, what kind of training should they receive and how often?

It's time folks!  Efforts to stop global warming, to establish peace, to develop farming revolutions, to ensure educational opportunities will go only so far as long as men have too much control.  Too many men have never had to fully grow up, so these whining, lying, cheating, sneaking, bullying toddlers will keep us in constant conflict of all kinds.  Such bullies can't stand peace and people actually getting along, unless they are forcing it to happen and are sure there is no opposition to them and their power:  Myanmar, China, North Korea, and the other countries moving foolishly in their direction. 

OMG!  What will those immature men do if we limit their power!  People might notice that those dictators have no more skill, talent, or intelligence than women and that white dictators have no more of those than any other men.  That will be scary for them and problematic for the rest of us for a while. 

Mr. Putin and his unwarranted attack on Ukraine is just the latest in a long string of men in the past 50 years from Nixon to Reagan to Baby Bush and Dick Cheyney, to ISIS, the Taliban,  et al, to the Trump and Kump cult, to Hungary’s autocratic Orban and his Republican fans, to China’s Xi who is throwing a tantrum because a powerful American woman visited Taiwan, to Israel abusing the Palestinians, to The Syrian and Saudi leaders who kill anyone whom they don’t like, and on and on, all men throwing their political and physical weight around harming others for their own benefit. 

We raise bullies and permit them to have power, so we should expect bullying and a big portion of insanity, and that is what we get.  The wonder is that it seems more autocracies are popping up, not because people want them, but because the practitioners have access to media which can amplify their lies, and they can get financial support from huge corporations whose male CEOs believe they can get even more money and power by hitching themselves to the autocrats’ wagon.

So, the patriarchy will continue with its wars, attacks on women and women’s rights to bodily autonomy, keeping girls from attaining education or anything else in society, permitting (even encouraging) sexual harassment in the workplace and on the street, and not prosecuting physical abuse within autocracies until the people stand up to it and get support to end the insanity.  We don’t want autocracy here, but we are going to have to actively work to stop it.  There are a lot of desperate scared men.

My life has been blest because most of the men I have known personally have been really good people.  I think that is the case for a majority of us.  I suspect power is not on their bucket list.  They care about people, including women.  I have worked with men at their lowest point and highest and they treated me well and mostly respected my abilities and contributions.  When they didn’t, all but one just stopped interacting with me more than necessary for both of us to do our jobs.  I left 2 jobs because of male harassment but it was only one man on each job who disrespected the women and some of the men there, and both were disabled white men.  I can’t help but wonder if disability for white men can create a drive to prove superiority even stronger than most men.

In ministry, I had the most difficulty.  I was an Associate Pastor in a large church for 16 months and came to be resented by the Senior Pastor as well as the choir director.  A male church leader got me fired for personal reasons. (I didn’t learn the whole story for many years after I left.)  I was that church’s first woman in ministry, so I guess it was hard for them, and they made it impossible for me.

Perhaps my good fortune in knowing such terrific men had to do with the careers I have held:  working with people related to AIDS, assisting in a library, working in a low-level government job, work-study on college campuses, and teaching.  Perhaps those fields don’t call to so many men who need to wield power over others.  In any case, it frustrates me that more men like those I have worked with aren’t the type people choose to represent them in government or to lead corporate boardrooms.  We’d be better off if they did.

LOOKING AT FREEDOM ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

By Ruth A. Sheets

On this Independence Day, 2022, I find that I am in a turmoil regarding what independence even means for our nation now.  I swing between hope and despair for our country and our people.  We just received from the Supreme Court of the United States rulings that do not represent independence or freedom for a whole lot of people.  

The first lets anyone who wants to carry a gun to do so because, well, the law shouldn’t keep anyone who wants to carry a gun from carrying a gun, pretty much wherever they want to carry it, or some other such BS, pulled out of nowhere claiming it is included in the 2nd amendment of the Constitution.  

The second overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision letting states decide whether or not women have the right to an abortion, even though there was no clear compelling reason to do so.

The third said it was OK for a football coach and his players to pray on the 50 yard line after each game even though the school doesn’t want them to because of the religious overtones.  My concern, what happens to a player who does not go along with this pseudo-religious crap.  Do they get less time on the field?  Do they get a less complimentary recommendation from Coach if they get one at all  The fourth claimed, for no obvious reason that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has no right to regulate carbon emissions despite the fact that the EPA was set up to regulate air, water, and land pollution and carbon pollution is the most serious of all.? 

In all four of these cases, personal and group freedoms are seriously impacted.  When anyone can carry guns, when is it OK to use it?  People who just happen to be near a person with a gun who decides using the gun against them is warranted gets to lose their life well, because the gun-toter “felt threatened.”  

In the second instance above, women are now slaves to their pregnancies whether they want to be or not.  Then they are slaves to a child if a live birth happens and they survive it.  People who help women to live their lives in freedom can be imprisoned for years because a bunch of scared white men are afraid women are getting too uppity.

In the third case above, coaches have more authority than the school community to do whatever religious thing they want and possibly to expect the same of the team members.  Those members will go along if they want to play the sport.  Where is their freedom while Coach gets to use and abuse his (in this case, his) freedom.

When corporations are allowed to set their own standards for pollution of whatever kind, the people who suffer most are those who have been determined to be of less value than other people, the ones whose homes, schools, and businesses are located in the  immediate vicinity of the polluter, mostly poor people of color.  Where is their right to clean air.  In this case, the whole world gets to suffer when carbon emissions are not regulated.  It is pretty clear Republicans in the Senate care too little for the American people to expand the EPA’s authority to meet the Supreme Court’s requirements, even though the Court is supposed to have no legislative ability. 

We the people have for generations allowed bad behavior on the part of mostly white men.  We have allowed and even enabled those white men to deny freedom from nearly everyone who was not rich, white, straight, Christian,  and male.  Consider the following: 

- Lynchings took place and very rarely was anyone even charged, let alone held accountable despite having postcards and other evidence of the crime sent all over the country.  The victims’ freedom and lives were taken from them and those in power either went along or actually participated.  

- Corporations, you know, the rich ones have perpetrated appalling destruction on communities causing massive live-altering health problems and unusable land and water.  Those corporations rarely met successful prosecution yet they stole freedom from the people who suffered from their actions.  Then, we the people had to pay to clean up their mess.  

- Separate but Equal was sneeringly Okayed by the 1896 Supreme Court and was NEVER even attempted.  Why?  It was clear Black Americans and other people of color were being abused and denied freedoms white folks had, but our courts just couldn’t bring themselves to do anything until 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education which is still being ignored, nearly 70 years later.  

- Women were not even considered in the smallest part when the Constitution was written.  In those days, women had no legal rights and very few freedoms of any kind.  Essentially, women belonged to their husbands or fathers.  They lived a separate life from men.  I suspect almost no men had a clue what women did every day except that he had clothes on his back, food in his belly, and a bunch of kids he could claim he fathered.  

For me, the overturn of Roe v. Wade is the most critical of the 4 cases taking away American’s freedoms.  Our current Court and its Republican managers are not only ignorant of women's lives today but beyond ignorant of women of the past, yet Roberts let Samuel Alito, one of the most ignorant misogynistic members (although Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Barrett are a close second), the right to define what was and was not happening in this country related to women at the time of the Constitution.  Alito knows nothing, so either he or one of his "clerks" found ridiculous misogynistic diatribes against abortion by medieval woman-hating asses, who actually believed in witches!  The other 4 of the worst on the Court went right along with the nonsense because they thought the ridiculous irrelevant quote was something they could use against women.  They surrounded the Medieval nonsense with a bunch of stuff that means nothing but must sound good and reasonable to those who are ignorant of women.  That doesn't say much for the Fantastic 5's intellectual or reasoning capacity, yet they made a ruling that will harm millions of women and girls and the people who support them.  I suspect as usually happens, we the people will permit it.  We will find work-arounds and do our best to get pregnant women the care they need, but not face head-on the real problem, white men and a few white women dictating what rights/freedoms they will permit women and people of color to have.  Those will be based on pseudo-religious beliefs that they morph regularly to suit their own behavior and conservative pressures. 

I can't help but wonder what Republicans get from this except more power over others on their way to some kind of warped insane autocracy they think they should be in charge of while they wave the American flag on July 4th and march in parades with the people they are harming, smiling and gloating that they won the victory over women’s right to bodily autonomy (probably toting their guns too).

Voting is probably our best option right now, but we need to do more.  I admit I am not sure what that more is.  Protesting is seen as just a quaint way to make some noise and police are usually free to stop them whenever they choose since they have all the weapons.  Vigils outside the homes of the people who are causing the harm are no longer legal (even Democrats went for that one to "protect" Brett Kavanaugh who would have protected no one).  Writing letters, signing petitions, and calling senators and representatives only have an impact on those who already agree with the letter-writer, petitioner, or caller.  In the hundreds of letters and petitions I have sent to my Senator, Pat Toomey, nothing I or anyone I know have said, changed his mind on anything or caused him to vote to protect the interests of the majority of people in Pennsylvania.  I am glad he is retiring this year, but if Dr. Oz takes his place, we will be no better and probably a whole lot worse off.  

So, here we are at Independence Day again.  I must admit that back at the bicentennial in 1976, I thought we would have moved on to a higher equality, a place where it wouldn’t matter one’s gender or race or LGBTQ status (I thought of it as sexual preference at the time).  What we have is far less than that, a few steps backward in the area of personal freedom and privacy.  

- White men are still in charge nearly everywhere even though they are a minority.

- Women are still second-class citizens even though we have made some progress.  The white men in charge are still doing everything they can to control our lives and are still succeeding.

- Black Americans are still maligned, targeted by the police, and forced to live in poverty in many places in this “land of the free.”

- Indigenous peoples have lost some of their tribal autonomy  since the Court ruled that they cannot fully police their own lands. 

- Abortion is now or soon will be illegal in more than half of the states.

- The Confederacy has risen again and has recruited a whole bunch of other states (Confederate Wannabees) to its cause of white supremacy and toxic maleness.

- Christianity has decreased in the number of practitioners in this country, but the Christians who throw their weight around (mostly Catholics and Evangelicals) are rabid, spewing a faith I would not have recognized 50 years ago and still don’t recognize.  They want to make this a Christian country of their own brand, despite the first amendment.

- Gun violence is up because guns are everywhere.  There are more guns than people in this country while only about 35% of the people own guns.  That’s pretty scary!

We must enjoy our 4th of July events but determine to fight for the freedom we celebrate today tomorrow and onward.  It is our responsibility not to give up hope and to work for a better world.