The other shoe just dropped!

 Whether our friends know it or not, Roe vs. Wade was the glue that held it all together.  It actually made it possible for women to have a say over there own reproductive organs.  It made us "equal" in more ways then just one.  For years I have watched and listened to the debate over right and wrong as to the use of my reproductive organs and finally became comfortable with my body and choices I made for it.  Roe vs. Wade saved a lot of lives in the years it was law.

Abortion is not an easy choice, as some people might think.  I can still remember back to when I was still in high school and the gossip was rampant about a woman who did "back alley abortions."  I forget her name, but I still remember snippets of gossip about "Mrs. Somebody" who, for a price would perform an abortion supposedly on her kitchen table.  Some one pointed her out to me and she just looked like a normal everyday woman.  No appearances of a "baby murderer" to me.

Time passed and abortions became more common.  I cannot spout dates and laws, but I do know that at some point the "procedure" became legal.  Of course, there were steps that had to be taken and it seems to me that maybe the father even had to give consent.  I did know a girl who had one and when it leaked out she was shunned and eventually moved away.  But of course, my memory of that is not clear.  Time has passed and a lot of things have changed, but apparently, the need to put limitations on what a woman can and cannot do with her body has not.

What you do in the sanctity of your home, with your body is none of my business.  Apparently, it is the business of the Supreme Court and the judges that set on the high bench and decide what some law that was passed many years ago.  What lofty goals they must have!  How they can set on the highest court in the land and pass judgement on a lonely, scared little girl in a back alley abortion clinic is more than I can understand.  I am sure there is a story that brought her there.  

The sad part of the whole thing is there is no right or wrong to this ordeal.  My God knows the paths I have walked and the places I have been.  He knows the decisions I have made and why they were made.  I have been divorced 5 times.  Divorce is wrong.  Hope they do not decide to set my divorces aside because that could get damn messy!

The fact of the matter in this is that women have now taken a back seat to the functions of their own bodies.  It is not a man over woman victory here,  it is a statement that basically says, "Do as we say.  We are better than you at deciding what you do."  Many years ago when I campaigned for gay rights, which will probably be the next right to fall, there was a speech that went like this:

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• By David W. Virtue

www.virtueonline.org3/26/2007

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent; I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I did not speak out;

I was not a Jew.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Never let your right hand know....

"Never let your right hand know what your left hand is doing", was something my mother always said when she was imparting her wisdom to my tender ears.  She was referring to acts of kindness or charity.  We should never brag of our work.  Or at least that is what I took it to mean.

But it also applies to our world outside of the church and I never really understood what that meant until I started paying attention to our politicians and public leaders.  What brought this to my attention was a headline I just saw over on my news feed.  "Unnamed prominent person fights to keep Epstein records sealed."  Now I know what she meant!

I am pretty sure I can guess who it is, but then again, maybe not.  Oh, wait!  Do I care?  Not really.  Our politicians today are all so screwed up that it is just a matter of whose sins are bigger and how many bodies are hidden.  And all of those things are covered up and if not covered, then buried in public view.  Does anyone remember Chappaquiddick?  Watergate?  Clarence Thomas and the infamous Coke can?  Did any of that change history?  Nope.  Not one iota.  More importantly, do the participants remember what they did?  Hell no!  It is old news.

Our nation is in crisis and we are bombarded with news of pedophiles, sexual assaults, disrespect and anything to keep our minds off of what is really going on in our nation.  Our government is spending money like it was free and the upper echelon does not even pay taxes.  But we do!  We set here like a bunch of ducks in a barrel waiting to be harvested by bigger guns than our military carries, because we have our second amendment rights!  Give me an effen break!

Now I am not here to give you a lesson in morality because most of you should be old enough to know right from wrong, but it seems a lot of our leaders in this tumultuous times are keeping a lot of secrets and on an almost daily basis we read of one of our reputable leaders falling from grace.  Oh, trust me, there are a few things I did back in my wicked past that could come back to haunt me, but this would mean somebody has a way better memory than I do because I have pretty much forgotten my dark days.  That, coupled with the fact that I have out lived most of my cronies, allows me to sleep soundly at night.

Washington is a hot bed of corruption and we turn our backs and walk away.  It used to be we could "vote the rascals out", but with Russia in charge of our ballot box,  we stand little chance on that front.  But you know what I think?  I really feel that some where in this hot bed of filth that is now our government, there are a few decent people who really care.

My mother was a Republican and she was a good person, so I am sure that not all of them are bad.  But we have to research our candidates from the township election clear up to the presidential ballot.  From the city, to the county, to the state, to the federal.  Every damned one of them.  Vote like your life depended on it, because with our environment in the shape it is in, it does!

Another one my daughter pulled out of her hat was  "What doesn't kill you, will make you strong."  That one pretty well puts it all in prospective for me.