It may be Good Friday, but its been a Rough Week
Take a breather this weekend and relax before we roll up our sleeves and fight!
What a week it has been! Some weeks just feel like a month!
Disgraced Former President Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned Tuesday in NYC on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and paying hush money during his 2016 campaign and we NYers all danced a dance of joy - not much left to say. Any accountability for this crook is welcomed and encouraged. One of the exonerated and wrongly accussed ‘Central Park 5’ members, Yusef Salaam, had the best recap; Karma. And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whom I find so eloquent in his summations of current events, had this to say about “good people” and the ‘banality of evil’ - its very much worth a read.
Wednesday we had a lovely seder with local friends and it was such a great group of people and collective meal. I love the ritual of Passover, the symbolic celebration of Israelites escaping slavery in Egypt and the way the Haggadah tells the tale and lays out the story of the book of Exodus. Anyone who knows me knows, I am no fan of organized religion, but culture and traditions I often enjoy and this is one of my favorites. With the rise of anti-semitism around the world, it’s more important than every to gather and and share stories and strength and keep traditions alive. I can only hope that eventually love squashes hate and ignorance is erased through education and we find a way to love and accept one another. For me, there is no greater way to bridge divides than to share customs through food. An easy way to open closed hearts and minds is through the stomach.
Passover which begins on the 15th of the month of Nissan in the Hebrew calendar, coincided with the Full Pink Moon, which was in Libra so there was a lot of extra midweek energy to boot.
The glow of the holiday quickly faded Thursday when Tennesse GOP lawmakers practiced their best fascist tactics and proposed expelling 3 members of their state congress for participating in a protest over gun control on the House floor in support of their constituents. The state super majority allowed this dogmatic behavior to occur (with no checks or balances) and on Friday, we learned the chamber had exceeded in gaining the votes needed to oust two of those 3 members. This is a terrifying story to follow and yet we all must pay careful attention. This is what the unraveling of democracy looks like. (and I DON’T say that lightly or glibly)
The positive side of this story is that over 1,000 peaceful protestors, mostly young people, came to their state capital to demand change and stricter gun laws to protect children in schools after the deadly attack on a Nashville School March 27th - this demonstration and mass support of a First Amendment right to peacefully protest was exercised well and powerfully. They clearly caught the attention of the other side, who wished to silence them rather than listen to them.
In other squashing news, SCOTUS is continuing to de-evolve and become more and more irrelevant and we were reminded this week that Justice Clarance Thomas has been taking lavish gifts from a GOP ultra conservative mega donor, Harlan Crow for over 20 years. The Los Angeles Times broke this story in 2004, which led Thomas to stop reporting the gifts. Now he says “he was advised it was OK” (which I am sure is a lie, he just thinks he has immunity from all laws). I do have a fantasy of Drumpf and Thomas sharing a prison cell - hey, a girl can dream. But in all seriousness, this is deeply disturbing news and Thomas should resign.
Friday found somewhat confusing decisions by two judges regarding the “abortion pill”, Mifepristone. One Texas federal judged made a 'preliminary ruling’ invalidating the FDA’s 23 year approval of the drug and another Washington state judge disagreed so we will need to hear more about what this ultimatly means for women and access to health care and abortion care in the US going forward. Another deeply troubling sign of the rise of authoritarian and fascism in our country. When you take body autonomy away from 51% of the population, you are in dangerous territory.
I think its becoming increasingly hard to believe anything from the anti-choice activists or politicians. It’s certainly hard to understand how they say they care about “life” when they don’t believe in school safety, children’s safety or helping raise children out of poverty (GOP tax cuts), improving education or access to health care.
On an upnote, enjoy the weekend and Happy Easter to those that celebrate and Happy Ramadan and Passover as well. May a big dose of seasonal, holiday cheer bring you strength to defend our democracy, promote equality and help one another. Let’s all get engaged and activated and involved.