Bill LaCroix: The Winner!

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

The Winner!

Here is the winner for Best Sign at today’s (May 4^th) Pro-Choice demonstration in front of the “majestic” Supreme Court steps and pillars. Behind the sign is a self-assured young woman enjoying her right to A: demonstrate her knowledge of human anatomy and B: have an opinion about it. Beside her is a Wise Man (Wise Guy in the vernacular) who may or may not understand the connection between anatomy and opinion and may or may not have a problem with the way our democracy is getting flushed down the toilet bowl draining into the upside-down swamp called ‘Susan Collins In Wonderland’ (where Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb go to Congress and float across the mythical aisle in a pea-green boat with Tweedle-Dumber) but knows enough to bite his tongue when his opinion doesn’t match his anatomy, which is what he’s pictured doing here.

When Wise Guy showed up on the steps of the Supremes this morning, there were about half a dozen women and a couple guys holding signs. An hour or so later there was a couple dozen and shortly after that there was four, five, six dozen chanting Pro-Choicers and lots of support from the onlookers. This compared to about three flat-earthers who—wait for it—were dutifully interviewed for “balance” by the media grips and gabbers who showed up.

Never mind them. Know this, that you are in the supermajority of Americans who not only do not want the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade but want Tweedle-Congress (and Joe Biden) to get off their asses and codify reproductive rights into law. Also know that this is the way you do it. Show up and build your voice, over and over, and over and over until the bastards can't ignore you (us) anymore.

Finally, for all you guys out there who aren’t sure about how this affects you, consider biting your tongue before you say anything really, really stupid to these totally-pissed off women.

In other words, if you can’t figure out how this pending decision is going to flush us all down the toilet bowl of wing nut libertarianism where your freedom isn't loved by those educationally-challenged bigots who love their own but want to legislate yours out of existence (google: 'fascists'), just stick to the fallback position of any sensible Wise Guy on this one:

No Uterus-No Opinion

7 P.M. update: When I went back down to the Supreme Porch around 4:30 there were a solid 40-50 Pro-Choicers AND NO FLAT-EARTHERS IN SIGHT. When I left about 15 minutes ago (becuz I had to pee) there was a joyful, young, loud 300+ AND ONLY ONE ANTI-CHOICER WHO HURRIED THRU WITH AN INSCRUTABLE SIGN which was the only way to tell whether or not she had a date with the edge of the world which I could have told her was just south of Conner, Montana if she’d just stuck around.

Tomorrow promises more. I’m planning to be there.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why I Blog

Thoreau and Emerson had a discussion in May of 1846 about the Mexican War--our first war that set us on the course we still track today. Conquest of nation-states and the inevitable Imperialism that follows. Emerson counseled his friend that we can supersede the transgressions of a well-meaning State by the Muse. Thoreau wasn't so sure that the State was so well-meaning or that the Muse alone would be enough to supersede it. But he tried both the Muse and "other means" to our everlasting benefit. Civil Disobedience, in the American sense, has always been his child, in large part because he raised it to the level of Literature. "Other means" requires the Muse to be lasting and effective, and vice versa. How would anyone know what the hell you were talking about otherwise, let alone emulate what you're trying to do?

The problem with Progressives today, I think, is that we have been in the habit of letting other people--Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, Sun Myung Moon--tell our stories for us, people who do not mean us well. We haven't plugged our muse into our political discourse very much, and that's a big mistake. Mark Twain didn't make that mistake, and he was among the first American writers to use the new-fangled typewriter. Why do we children of Twain, Emerson and Thoreau make that mistake now with our new-fangled computers?

For all its faults, Corporate America understands that people are story-based critters, like it or not, and I think we progressives should like it. By definition, people make many important social (read: political) decisions based largely on who's the best storyteller. It’s in our nature, and Corporate Media is a classic example of how Nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve collectively created a cultural ‘narrative’ vacuum by allowing ourselves to be so easily entertained by—Corporate Media! And Nature hates that. She’ll allow the same garbage responsible for that vacuum (Corporate Media!) to be sucked in and to rattle around until it ruins our cognative motors before she’ll let that sad state of affairs stand. I'd ask any "America Firsters" stumbling on this blog and reading this far to consider: Rupert Murdoch is from Australia. Sun Myung Moon, now-deceased but whose creatures, the Washington Times and UPI still walk the face of the earth, was from Korea. The Koch Brothers, of course, were from the sheikdom of Texas. All of them were, and the living ones still are, so obscenely rich they apparently believed they own America simply because they paid for it, and we collectively let them define who among us are “real Americans”?! C'mon!

Although it helps to strive toward the goal, progressives don't have to be great writers, and I'm not claiming to be one. We simply have to acknowledge that we have the better stories and we’re sitting on our best ones. Our truest ones. Multi-national billionaires have better versions of American Liberalism and Progressivism than the real ones told by real Americans? Us? We shouldn't put up with that. Why do we?

Like any historic attempt, we need to find our Voice. Significant action will come only after our contemporary, progressive political muse matures, which it hasn't yet. Not to paint with too wide a brush, but too much of our positions have been framed in intellectual, almost-didactic prose, which, if you don't identify as an intellectual, means boring. Not all of it, just a whole lot of it, but never mind. If history's still a guide--and I hope it still is--there's hope, because when any progressive movement's Muse matures, it generally becomes the baseline for much of Western Civilization’s meaningful and therefore lasting literature. For example, "Mein Kampf" is still in print but I'll bet you'd have to turn over a lot of rocks to find someone to call it 'literature'.

So, this blog. It's a call, I suppose, to elevate our critical modern discussions out of Fox-news-landia back to where intelligent, caring Americans can find their feet and fight back, either with the Muse, by other means, or both. It’s not up to some politician to change the narrative. That’s up to us. So by definition we still have as good a chance as we ever had. Don't lose hope. It’s always been this way. At least in literate societies.

In other words, like Emerson advised and Thoreau partially agreed with: stories matter, and may the best Muse win.