By Cristina Gutierrez-Boswell
THIS WEEK has been a thrilling week for humanity. First the “rebel flag” (mistakenly [ignorantly] thought to be the actual Confederate Flag) has been taken down in the wake of the #Charlestonshooting. Second, Obamacare has been upheld and finally, marriage equality exists for everyone in the United States. Still, there are some very serious issues women are still having to deal with, such as rape kit back logs, epidemic feminicides from Mexico to Canada and wartime rape.
Read on, below the fold, to learn more....
SCOTUS ruled, 5-4, that marriage equality is the law of the land. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the best argument for #marriageequality I have ever heard:
Justice Anthony Kennedy opinion on marriage equality
As a Latina feminist and crusader for equality and justice in all realms, when he spoke of loneliness, I welled up a bit. It was the most perfect affirmative opinion I have ever read.
But of course, as the laws of physics state: What goes up must come down. Scalia wrote a dissent so crazy, Mel Brooks could have used it in “Blazing Saddles!” As a matter of fact, I believe every time he speaks, the Devil laughs and humanity weeps in shame:
"Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact—and the furthest extension one can even imagine—of the Court’s claimed power to create “liberties” that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves."
I mean what the hell is he talking about? Who the hell is “my ruler?” The Constitution? The Constitution. The same Constitution which has grown since its onset? Growing and evolving to abolish things like slavery in order to do its best to serve its constituents? Because states, particularly southern, cannot be left to do it on their own. And strangely if you want the people to govern themselves, why in the hell did you put yourself in a position to judge…for EVERYONE? What does that make you? You are delusional to the point of insane, to believe you are serving our “Ruler.” You serve justice the way Fox delivers news!
This also really happened...
The truth behind the so-called "Confederate Flag" is being revealed and "suthanas" are literally gob-smacked by the revelations. Here's the deal:
This is the "real" Confederate Flag:
The Confederate Flag
NOT this
symbol of segregation:
The Rebel Flag
So quit telling people what “heritage” it represents to you. Take that flag and wipe your ass with it because that is what it means to me…RACIST, Anti-Integration, slave-“massering,” antebellum nonsense! And why would you want any Confederate flag flying over you? I mean, isn’t that the very definition of “loser?”
And finally in “this really happened”:
President Obama has a little more strut in his stuff because SCOTUS upheld “Obamacare.” How can you not take care of your people? What the heck is wrong with you? Find all the faults in the world with it, but the plain truth is people are insured and they get to die with dignity and not on the street like homeless dogs.
Onto the “War Room”….
In news too ironically good to be true (but is):
Abstinence Ambassador and Marcia Brady wannabe, Baby mama Bristol Palin is pregnant, again, with her second baby from some unknown sperm source. She doesn’t want to be “lectured” by anyone, and kindly wants everyone to respect her privacy, even though for years, she and her mother have been preaching up everyone else’s freshly sexed vaginas for being used for fun outside of marriage. Apparently, karma is a bitch and guess the name?
In “Who gives a crap if their dead it’s just the marginalized of the already marginalized, group of women being targeted” news:
Women from Mexico to Canada are being murdered in droves and no one is doing much about it! They are showing up dead and their federal governments are taking generic to no action at all! As someone from the Texas border, I’m all too familiar with women going missing. I know their fates, and it seems the government cares little for these girls because they are the poor girls from the ranchos who come to the cities to work in the factories. The same theme is happening in Canada. The girls turning up murdered are aboriginal women. There is a system of classist, racist and sexist governments who don’t care we are losing human beings to disturbed individuals… and these psychos are being left alone. How are the rest of us safe?
On a side note, read the differences between the terms “femicide” and “feminicide” according to the Guatemala Human Rights Commission here: http://www.ghrc-usa.org/...
And speaking of serial murderers on the loose:
There are women turning up dead in Chillicothe, Ohio. However, because they are mostly considered prostitutes who are hooked on drugs, no one seems to care too much. The lesson here? If you want to become a serial murderer, apparently all you have to do is attack the part of society which no one pays attention to and you can away with it!
In what should be “War Crime” news:
There is an international campaign to make rape during times of war a “crime.” It sounds perfectly reasonable to appropriately prosecute any individuals who support, partake or stand idly by while it happens, to the fullest extent. This would send a clear message to the perpetrators that rape has serious consequences. However, prosecution is more like this:
“Yet, justice is elusive for survivors as attackers often continue to hold their jobs within the security forces, live alongside their victims, and face no reprisal for their actions. In many countries around the world, security forces are privilege to special justice mechanisms including being tried only within military courts—providing many challenges for survivors to obtain a fair trial.”
For more, read:
http://www.stoprapeinconflict.org/...
Also, reread a related piece I wrote over a year ago about “National Security Rape” here: http://www.dailykos.com/...
It is similar and happening to refugee women along our border.
In more news concerning the topic of rape:
There still seems a backlog of rape kits and it all ties to victim-blaming: http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
This is a follow up piece by Sofia Resnick’s of her last article about rape kit backlogs.
In “racist violence masking itself as chivalry,” news:
White women are tired of being used as the excuse for the perpetuation of racist violence against people of Color.
Speaking of Charleston…#saytheirnames.
And I would like you to meet:
The “63rd Black woman to receive her Ph.D in physics:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
In Pro-Choice News:
Some good…
“Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) did away with regulations that may have prevented Planned Parenthood from opening a new facility in New Orleans.”
And some not-so-good…
Missouri has made getting an abortion extremely difficult to the point of unrealistic.
“When Missouri enacted its new waiting period law last fall, it became only the third state to require a 72-hour delay, joining Utah and South Dakota. (The law has no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or fetal anomaly.) Since then, two other states followed its lead and others are playing catch-up.
In the first five and a half months of 2015, 14 states introduced abortion waiting-period legislation – either proposing or extending delays. Five of those bills have been enacted into law, more than in any previous year, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights thinktank based in Washington DC”
To just plain cow dung…
Texas embarrasses itself yet again when it comes to designing legislation for women to access abortion, cancer screenings and now teenagers in need of abortion services. Read all the stupidity here:
http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
By the way, I was there, at the Texas State Capitol when Wendy Davis filibustered. I sat in the Senate gallery and watched the first five hours alongside hundreds wearing orange (representing PRO-CHOICE). However, there were THOUSANDS of us at the Capitol protesting into the night! Women of Texas do not want you legislating our bodies. We want you to leave us to our own decisions. We do not need you to decide for us how we should act, how many children we should have, how long we should wait to obtain medical services which are none of your business, and general moral guidelines you think we should be adopting. You are misogynistic/horizontally hostile about women and that is your problem. You know, I think we should start creating legislation for that because it those attitudes which are the problem! Yes, how about we start fighting back with our own rules. We’ll call it “Anti-misogyny laws.” Do I sense ERA passing soon?
In Nostalgic advertising:
Check out these ads that placed women in disturbing realities:
http://www.purpleclover.com/...
And finally, it seems Sweden has their stuff together when it comes to women. Read Al Jazeera’s interview with Margot Wallström, the minister for foreign affairs representing Sweden. She is on a mission to spread a very feminist agenda, particularly in areas where women are disregarded…want to come to Texas?
On a personal note…
I want to congratulate all my friends who were not allowed to marry before yesterday. I was talking to one of my friends about the great news. She told me, “I was born gay. I never have been interested in ‘being’ with men. The other girls I grew up with were not like me. They would dream of their wedding days. I didn’t have that dream because I didn’t think it was possible.” Well my friend, dream on because now, and it is thanks to you and people like you who stood firm in who they were(are), a “wedding” is not only something you can dream about, but something you can do! I love you, dearie.