Alito bit of Sandra on the run...Alito bit of Dubya by your side...Alito bit of you makes me want to cry!*
Confused ranting and incoherence ahead. Consider yourself warned.
While filling my coffee mug yesterday at work, I glanced at a newspaper lying nearby and read a headline that almost made me drop the contents and burn my hand. Judge Samuel Alito (almost Chief Justice, nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor) says he is willing to revisit a 33-year old landmark judgment Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the United States (or rather, outlawed anti-abortion laws) if voted to the Supreme Court. Democrats in the Senate and ordinary people everywhere are worried about this very Republican/Conservative tilting of the Supreme Court. Thank you very much, Mr.Bush.
While each state has its laws regarding this issue, the federal law precedent was established in 1973 with this case. In Oregon, state law has lower restrictions on abortion than is federally deemed the minimum, or so I understand. This place is certainly more liberal and socially conscious than other areas of America I've seen. Before coming here, I was in Ohio which is more conservative for sure, but I saw little of that conservatism living in the liberal shelter of the University town. For naive ears like mine, then, things like the Supreme Court is leaning so right now, that it could repeal what most would now consider a given, the right to medically terminate an unwanted pregnancy, sound a little scary.
I am not declaring any pro-abortion tendencies. I am not even sure if I am pro-life or pro-choice. I cannot bear the thought of terminating a life at any stage, be it as an embryo or a foetus or a twenty-year old fighting a war he was lied to about. All I know is these are personal decisions, and if the law takes away the possibility for even that personal decision to exist as a choice, there's some justification for worry.
Ignoring the nature of this particularly sensitive issue of legalizing abortion, isn't there something amiss in a judicial system that's considering reverting back to what was the status quo three decades ago???
I have maintained for a while now, that the definition of 'progress' in this country is in grave danger. I am not pretending to have closely followed the happenings in the Senate, but the little I hear about is enough to strengthen that fear. Progress can now mean anything from rethinking 33 year long legal precedents, to refusing to acknowledge scientific proof of evolution in favor of teaching about 'intelligent design' in schools to lying to the world about the existence of non-existent WMDs to...grrrrrrrr!!!
While filling my coffee mug yesterday at work, I glanced at a newspaper lying nearby and read a headline that almost made me drop the contents and burn my hand. Judge Samuel Alito (almost Chief Justice, nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor) says he is willing to revisit a 33-year old landmark judgment Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the United States (or rather, outlawed anti-abortion laws) if voted to the Supreme Court. Democrats in the Senate and ordinary people everywhere are worried about this very Republican/Conservative tilting of the Supreme Court. Thank you very much, Mr.Bush.
While each state has its laws regarding this issue, the federal law precedent was established in 1973 with this case. In Oregon, state law has lower restrictions on abortion than is federally deemed the minimum, or so I understand. This place is certainly more liberal and socially conscious than other areas of America I've seen. Before coming here, I was in Ohio which is more conservative for sure, but I saw little of that conservatism living in the liberal shelter of the University town. For naive ears like mine, then, things like the Supreme Court is leaning so right now, that it could repeal what most would now consider a given, the right to medically terminate an unwanted pregnancy, sound a little scary.
I am not declaring any pro-abortion tendencies. I am not even sure if I am pro-life or pro-choice. I cannot bear the thought of terminating a life at any stage, be it as an embryo or a foetus or a twenty-year old fighting a war he was lied to about. All I know is these are personal decisions, and if the law takes away the possibility for even that personal decision to exist as a choice, there's some justification for worry.
Ignoring the nature of this particularly sensitive issue of legalizing abortion, isn't there something amiss in a judicial system that's considering reverting back to what was the status quo three decades ago???
I have maintained for a while now, that the definition of 'progress' in this country is in grave danger. I am not pretending to have closely followed the happenings in the Senate, but the little I hear about is enough to strengthen that fear. Progress can now mean anything from rethinking 33 year long legal precedents, to refusing to acknowledge scientific proof of evolution in favor of teaching about 'intelligent design' in schools to lying to the world about the existence of non-existent WMDs to...grrrrrrrr!!!
There seems to me, to be more and more interference of the legal and political system into the personal life of Americans. I think people in this country had gotten used to certain freedoms, (like freedom of speech, maybe?) that is suddenly being questioned under the current political and legislative atmosphere. (In fact, I hesitated for a while before deciding to post this! Once again, thank you very much, Mr.Bush!)
This supreme court nomination is one of those rare occasions when the great (grave?!) influence that politics has on the law and hence, on the every day life of people, becomes very clear.
However, all is not doom and gloom...Alito's nomination replaces Harriet Miers', a woman whose lack of qualifications and credibility would have made Bush a bigger joke than he already is. So that's something. I suppose?!
However, all is not doom and gloom...Alito's nomination replaces Harriet Miers', a woman whose lack of qualifications and credibility would have made Bush a bigger joke than he already is. So that's something. I suppose?!
*With apologies to Lou Bega - Mambo # Five!
posted by RTD2 at 7:52 PM
4 Comments:
We seem to have a trend going on here, after all Intelligent design theory is being actively promoted as well.
It does seem highly likely that issues like abortion, euthanasia (remember terry schiavo and how congress almost got involved, seems difficult to believe that they had no other issue of "national" importance to consider), religion in court/education etc and intelligent design will be revisited.
p.s. nice work on the title :)
Haha..And I thought this would be my first post with no comments :)
Thanks Anoop for preventing self-esteem damage.
And yes, I do see the trend, and so do others...All I can do is repeat what I saw on a bumper sticker today: "Is it 2008 yet?" :)
This just in, Senate confirms Judge Alito to the supreme court by 58-42. No filibuster and other stuff.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/alito/index.
Is it puddy in Seinfeld that dreams of having enough judges on the bench to overrule Roe vs Wade. Looks like he got his wish :-)
Ps:- I kinda like Judge Alito, seems like a upright guy to me
hmnn.. so much to say. dont know what to actually type.
1] decide whether you are pro- life or pro- choice. that is of more direct consequence to your life than what anyone else thinks, does or says. even though you think you will not find yourself in that situation- it is more important to be true to yourself than to anyone else.
2]someday, i hope it will be possible for us to communicate with an unborn child to know what he/she has to say about the issue- that would make the 'personal'choice making process for any biological parent in the situation truly about the person it is.
[3] kudos on your guts to actually publish this one- i hope its merely a symptom of much internal confrontation and growth. i hope you find many more questions and answers to ask yourself and others. real ones- that matter, not just academic/esoteric ones.
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