As awful as this has been, I feel the distant groundswell of possibility. This Supreme Court rollback of rights has been looming for years. We've all known this is where we were headed. Finally, it's underway. The intention of the reactionary majority has been revealed. Better to expose what we're truly up against if we intend to keep our democracy. It's upon each and every one of us to do what we can to push forward and ensure the pendulum swings back, sure and steady in the direction of justice and equal rights for all Americans.
The first word Elijah Cummings spoke to Congress, a short poem
"God's Minute"
God's Minute.
I only have a minute. Sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I did not choose it, but I know that I
must use it.
Give account if I abuse it. Suffer if I lose it.
Only a tiny minute, but eternity is in it.
It was quoted often by Dr. Benjamin Mays, president of Morehouse College, inspiration to Martin Luther King. Not all of us are as easily called to action as were Dr. King and Representative Cummings, but this week calls to us to take a fraction of one of those seconds to do something .
My college aged daughter and her friends went to a Planned Parenthood march today! She got bumper stickers for her car and buttons. They noted the many MALE anti choice protestors were there (and only a few women in the group) as validation of the patriarchal nature of the GOP and the right wing to overturn R v W. My children in their 20s are livid about this assault on their personal freedoms. Mask wearing doesn’t even compare!!!
It would help all of our sanity if we had 1 victory - an indictment of any Republican law maker for something other than a sexual crime (there are may of those). Just give me 1.
Sharing great inspiration from our friend Jessica Craven on the discipline of hope and her famous links, this one for Women's March rallies on Saturday May 14. Find your way to support!
“I choose the discipline of hope over the ease of cynicism.” YESYESYES!!
Hope is a discipline...It is harder, more effortful, and more demanding to refuse to give up. But that refusal itself is a muscle, and as we use it it strengthens. Hope, once small, becomes larger and more established. It begins to exist separately from circumstance. It becomes habit. This is why, when people ask me how I keep such a positive attitude, I can honestly say “I practice.”
Hope is an action. A practice. A discipline. And a self-fulfilling, self-perpetuating one, at that.
I was 11 when my mother died because she didn’t want the baby she carried. She already had 4 children. She was white, middle class and very very young and ashamed. Too young to die and too ashamed to ask for help.
My anger this week is mixed with so much sadness…. It will mean more death of women and girls. And the “ right to life” movement just brings shame. And death.
It's so depressing to read about Susan Collins and her naivete regarding Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. I think the rest of the free world knew they were lying when they swore that they saw Roe as settled law/precedent.
This travesty has finally gotten me off my butt to get going on work for the midterms. I think the horror of the Courts position on Roe will help us get more folks to the polls. And hopefully we have enough people working to protect the polls and votes so they can count.
If the Supreme Court completes its process and overturns Roe, we need to learn from those who oppose abortion. We need to organize and vote like they have. Continue demonstrating. Be single issue voters. Only vote for those who are clear in their support for women to have control over their bodies. The opponents of women fought for nearly 50 years to achieve their goal. And they plan to fight to make women's lives worse, more limited. We will make women's lives better. If it takes 50 years to restore Roe and more, I won't be around to see the success. But we will succeed.
This week has caused so much stress for me that it’s hard to even put words to what we are in the mist of.
I’m from Florida need I say more.my hope is that the Democrats are now motivated to vote with a little help from calls letters and getting registered. I am doing my part and more.
You are so right! We have to hold hope and determination along with the anger and utter disgust at this right wing push to take ultimately so many rights away! But this can be used to move people to be involved!!!! That’s our job!!🌎🇺🇸♥️
This is an issue that should be mobilizing young people to vote. I have been donating to “studentsforjusticevote.org” it is also a 501C3 — so tax deductible —- can donate from your IRA.
May 7, 2022·edited May 7, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
As someone who has spent the better part of the past decade deeply involved in climate activism, I am more familiar than I care to admit with despair and hopelessness. In the face of mounting evidence that the grim consequences of our addiction to fossil fuels are occurring sooner and proving potentially more catastrophic than expected, my colleagues and I have often found ourselves bereft of hope when, time and time again, governments around the world failed to take the necessary steps to begin addressing the problem. Still and all, here is what I have learned. That hope itself is curative. No matter how long the odds or monumental the disappointment, the instant I force myself, if only through sheer will, to set aside my despair and reengage hopefulness, I begin to feel better. However bleak the status quo at that moment, the very act of hoping and dreaming of a BETTER one lifts my spirits. No matter how Pollyannish or naive my optimism may appear right then, it lifts me up, restores me and refuels my determination. So I'll do as I've always done. Acknowledge, but then metabolize, my dismay and replace it once again with a defiant sense of hopefulness. Because it always works.
This op Ed could be the difference between success and failure-https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/02/opinion/democrats-rural-america.html?referringSource=articleShare
At local post office here in Brooklyn, New York, I was buying postcard stamps to send messages to voters when PO Staff asked, “Which state?”. I gave her a puzzled look. She replied, “Pennsylvania?”. I smiled and said” yes”. She said, “Keep them coming”. Every little bit helps when the situation is this bad. Our small actions are not going unnoticed!
I had an illegal abortion in 1963. That was 10 years before Roe v Wade made access to abortion safe and legal. Those were the days of “back alley” abortions and mine was no exception. I will spare the gory details but suffice it to say, I almost died.
There was no way I could have a baby at that time of my life, either financially or psychologically. I was desperate to do whatever it took to end the pregnancy. That desperation led to a relentless pursuit of ultimately dangerous measures. But my desperation surely pales in comparison to that of a woman being forced to carry the fetus of her rapist or a family member who assaulted her. I can’t even imagine the horror of that!
During the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, the visceral feelings of anxiety and fear I experienced from an unwanted pregnancy came roaring back. I spent the next 18 years working to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office. We made huge strides but we knew that someday a Supreme Court might compromise or even overturn Roe. However, the brutality, the lack of compassion or understanding, the misogyny and the hatred of this decision is appalling. It’s good to know that marches are being organized around the country but we’ve marched our feet off and still ended up here. Women have enormous financial power. Let’s find a way to use it and MAKE THEM PAY!
If Republicans take the Senate in November, do we think they’ll hesitate for an instant to overturn the filibuster and pass a federal ban on abortion. My 18 year old granddaughters may face fewer rights than women in Ireland, Turkey, Mexico and countless other countries. Let’s hope young people realize the stakes and come out to vote like never before.
ALL women should be able to make the decision of whether and when to have a family. Without that right women don’t occupy an equal place in society. Access to reproductive health care is a basic human right. We must reframe this issue as access to human rights. Someone famously said “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”. What a different place we’d be in had SHE become President.
As awful as this has been, I feel the distant groundswell of possibility. This Supreme Court rollback of rights has been looming for years. We've all known this is where we were headed. Finally, it's underway. The intention of the reactionary majority has been revealed. Better to expose what we're truly up against if we intend to keep our democracy. It's upon each and every one of us to do what we can to push forward and ensure the pendulum swings back, sure and steady in the direction of justice and equal rights for all Americans.
The first word Elijah Cummings spoke to Congress, a short poem
"God's Minute"
God's Minute.
I only have a minute. Sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I did not choose it, but I know that I
must use it.
Give account if I abuse it. Suffer if I lose it.
Only a tiny minute, but eternity is in it.
It was quoted often by Dr. Benjamin Mays, president of Morehouse College, inspiration to Martin Luther King. Not all of us are as easily called to action as were Dr. King and Representative Cummings, but this week calls to us to take a fraction of one of those seconds to do something .
make even a bit of a difference.
My college aged daughter and her friends went to a Planned Parenthood march today! She got bumper stickers for her car and buttons. They noted the many MALE anti choice protestors were there (and only a few women in the group) as validation of the patriarchal nature of the GOP and the right wing to overturn R v W. My children in their 20s are livid about this assault on their personal freedoms. Mask wearing doesn’t even compare!!!
It would help all of our sanity if we had 1 victory - an indictment of any Republican law maker for something other than a sexual crime (there are may of those). Just give me 1.
Sharing great inspiration from our friend Jessica Craven on the discipline of hope and her famous links, this one for Women's March rallies on Saturday May 14. Find your way to support!
“I choose the discipline of hope over the ease of cynicism.” YESYESYES!!
Hope is a discipline...It is harder, more effortful, and more demanding to refuse to give up. But that refusal itself is a muscle, and as we use it it strengthens. Hope, once small, becomes larger and more established. It begins to exist separately from circumstance. It becomes habit. This is why, when people ask me how I keep such a positive attitude, I can honestly say “I practice.”
Hope is an action. A practice. A discipline. And a self-fulfilling, self-perpetuating one, at that.
https://twitter.com/ElizLanders/status/1522239615230427136?s=20&t=55Hhknyv4yU8kX36aOzeZA
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/chop-wood-carry-water-56?s=r
I was 11 when my mother died because she didn’t want the baby she carried. She already had 4 children. She was white, middle class and very very young and ashamed. Too young to die and too ashamed to ask for help.
My anger this week is mixed with so much sadness…. It will mean more death of women and girls. And the “ right to life” movement just brings shame. And death.
It's so depressing to read about Susan Collins and her naivete regarding Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. I think the rest of the free world knew they were lying when they swore that they saw Roe as settled law/precedent.
This travesty has finally gotten me off my butt to get going on work for the midterms. I think the horror of the Courts position on Roe will help us get more folks to the polls. And hopefully we have enough people working to protect the polls and votes so they can count.
If the Supreme Court completes its process and overturns Roe, we need to learn from those who oppose abortion. We need to organize and vote like they have. Continue demonstrating. Be single issue voters. Only vote for those who are clear in their support for women to have control over their bodies. The opponents of women fought for nearly 50 years to achieve their goal. And they plan to fight to make women's lives worse, more limited. We will make women's lives better. If it takes 50 years to restore Roe and more, I won't be around to see the success. But we will succeed.
This week has caused so much stress for me that it’s hard to even put words to what we are in the mist of.
I’m from Florida need I say more.my hope is that the Democrats are now motivated to vote with a little help from calls letters and getting registered. I am doing my part and more.
You are so right! We have to hold hope and determination along with the anger and utter disgust at this right wing push to take ultimately so many rights away! But this can be used to move people to be involved!!!! That’s our job!!🌎🇺🇸♥️
This is an issue that should be mobilizing young people to vote. I have been donating to “studentsforjusticevote.org” it is also a 501C3 — so tax deductible —- can donate from your IRA.
As someone who has spent the better part of the past decade deeply involved in climate activism, I am more familiar than I care to admit with despair and hopelessness. In the face of mounting evidence that the grim consequences of our addiction to fossil fuels are occurring sooner and proving potentially more catastrophic than expected, my colleagues and I have often found ourselves bereft of hope when, time and time again, governments around the world failed to take the necessary steps to begin addressing the problem. Still and all, here is what I have learned. That hope itself is curative. No matter how long the odds or monumental the disappointment, the instant I force myself, if only through sheer will, to set aside my despair and reengage hopefulness, I begin to feel better. However bleak the status quo at that moment, the very act of hoping and dreaming of a BETTER one lifts my spirits. No matter how Pollyannish or naive my optimism may appear right then, it lifts me up, restores me and refuels my determination. So I'll do as I've always done. Acknowledge, but then metabolize, my dismay and replace it once again with a defiant sense of hopefulness. Because it always works.
This op Ed could be the difference between success and failure-https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/02/opinion/democrats-rural-america.html?referringSource=articleShare
We can’t give up!
At local post office here in Brooklyn, New York, I was buying postcard stamps to send messages to voters when PO Staff asked, “Which state?”. I gave her a puzzled look. She replied, “Pennsylvania?”. I smiled and said” yes”. She said, “Keep them coming”. Every little bit helps when the situation is this bad. Our small actions are not going unnoticed!
Today is a horrible, no-good, very bad day!
I had an illegal abortion in 1963. That was 10 years before Roe v Wade made access to abortion safe and legal. Those were the days of “back alley” abortions and mine was no exception. I will spare the gory details but suffice it to say, I almost died.
There was no way I could have a baby at that time of my life, either financially or psychologically. I was desperate to do whatever it took to end the pregnancy. That desperation led to a relentless pursuit of ultimately dangerous measures. But my desperation surely pales in comparison to that of a woman being forced to carry the fetus of her rapist or a family member who assaulted her. I can’t even imagine the horror of that!
During the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, the visceral feelings of anxiety and fear I experienced from an unwanted pregnancy came roaring back. I spent the next 18 years working to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office. We made huge strides but we knew that someday a Supreme Court might compromise or even overturn Roe. However, the brutality, the lack of compassion or understanding, the misogyny and the hatred of this decision is appalling. It’s good to know that marches are being organized around the country but we’ve marched our feet off and still ended up here. Women have enormous financial power. Let’s find a way to use it and MAKE THEM PAY!
If Republicans take the Senate in November, do we think they’ll hesitate for an instant to overturn the filibuster and pass a federal ban on abortion. My 18 year old granddaughters may face fewer rights than women in Ireland, Turkey, Mexico and countless other countries. Let’s hope young people realize the stakes and come out to vote like never before.
ALL women should be able to make the decision of whether and when to have a family. Without that right women don’t occupy an equal place in society. Access to reproductive health care is a basic human right. We must reframe this issue as access to human rights. Someone famously said “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”. What a different place we’d be in had SHE become President.