Anything interesting happen this week?

Well, Jerry Jones got in a car accident. He’s fine. Vicky White, a corrections officer, ran off with Casey White, an Alabama inmate, in an apparent romantic tryst. They’re still on the lam. Joe Biden’s approval rating ticked down, then up, and holds steady at around 42%. 42% seems to be the presidential norm, anymore. Some new Omicron variants have emerged. Just when we were settling down with BA.2.12.1 along came BA.4 and BA.5. That stuff spreads like a plague. The Dow was up. The Dow was down. We’re worried about recession and the jobs reports remain amazing. Birds invaded a traveling couple’s home. Kim wore the dress. Antarctica is hiring.

And, oh yeah, the Roe thing.

I try to stay off the topic, myself. Abortion. It’s not my place. But if I had to pronounce a standing, I’d say we ought to leave it to the individual woman with her personal body to make this very important decision. Like anything there are critical nuances to hash out but in the end that’s where I’d stand. Up to her. Not me. Her.

But in case you missed it – and bully for you for doing so; I missed the Kim thing entirely – a draft of a decision written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was leaked, and it portends the end of Roe v Wade. The end. 50 years of established law, protecting the right for a woman to have an abortion in the United States of America, is suggested – perhaps set – to be overturned by the highest court in the land. Let that sink in.

What does it mean? To some alarmists it will mean the end of abortions. But we know that’s not true. What it actually means is that the federal government will have no say in laws pertaining to abortion rights. The court is kicking it back to the states like its 1972 or something. If I had to guess, I’d say that what it means is that in somewhere around half the states in the nation abortion will be illegal or severely limited and nearly impossible to get. Sorry.

Do I think it will happen? Yes, I believe it will.

Unfortunately, it’s been in the works for a while. It was more “hoped for” than “planned” (planned would indicate a conspiracy; you know what I think about that), but that hope – by the conservative right – has come to fruition. It began a LONG time ago, this hope – these “plans” – but a couple of notable recent actions perpetrated this reality.

First, Mitch blocked Merrick. The sitting president of the United States of America, whose job it is to pick replacements for the Supreme Court, picked a guy the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, didn’t like, and Mitch sat out the end of the term – nearly a year – without a hearing that certainly would have put Merrick Garland – a pro-choice person – on the bench. Vacancy.

Next, the United States overwhelming chose Hillary Clinton to be the next president, but she didn’t get the right votes in the right order in the right states or something and the election was given to Donald Trump instead, a mistake on every possible level. In the most laughable result imaginable, we got President Donald Trump and became the joke of the world.

But, as President, that guy got to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court stolen by Mitch McConnell from Barack Obama. We got Gorsuch instead, an anti-abortion dude.

Over the course of the next few years, America’s big mistake – a one-term, two-time loser, and lifetime charlatan and clown – got to pick two more justices. Kavanaugh, a louse, and Amy Coney Barrett. Both are, like Gorsuch, very publicly against the right to an abortion. The deck was stacked. At that point it was only a matter of time.

So, Mitch. Donald. Neil. Brett. Amy. A series of unfortunate events. A comedy of errors. Call it what you will, it’s absolutely real.

It isn’t what America wants. No sirree. Some two-thirds of Americans are against overturning Roe v Wade. But we live in an America, currently, where the 30% keep getting their way. Tyranny of the minority I suppose you can call it. It probably has something to do with the weird way we set up the Senate.

It won’t last. I mean, it may for a few decades to come – I’m sorry to say – but we can’t fix what is already broke. This is the paragraph where I tell you that you all had a chance to stop this when it was happening, but I won’t because I don’t know if that’s true. Besides, who am I to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong? Should we have pushed harder for Hillary? Should we have impeached Mitch for sitting on his hands? Should Pete Carroll have run the ball on the 1-yard line in the Super Bowl to beat the Patriots?

Well, that last one was a no-brainer.

But the long arc of history points towards progress. I probably can’t say that too much. Maybe I can, but just the same I’ll say it again: The long arc of history points towards progress. In the short run, like now, there will be bumps in the road. Bumps like Trump. Like the current makeup of the Supreme Court. Like McConnell. But these barricades will be surmounted in time as the long arc winds. Progress will come. Health care will become a right, in time. Higher education will be cheap or free. We’ll get a handle on our national gun problem. In time.

In time, choice will return.

Stay strong, stay safe, and stay together. Find the common ground that will turn our numbers, the numbers that overwhelmingly want all of these things I mentioned, into momentum. Momentum can shatter impediments, build a better nation, a better world. The deck is stacked against progress right now, yes, but progress comes anyhow. We overthrew tyranny. Ended slavery. Built civil rights. They said it couldn’t be done, every time they said it couldn’t be done. And the darkest hours were right there before the dawn.

We hit another bump in the road. We’ll push through it.

I’m with you all the way.