Reflections on films, politics, and everything else.

  I grew up in an evangelical church, and as soon as I could escape it, I did. I remember my mother talking longingly about the mansion she would have in heaven and, even at a young age, I felt uncomfortable hearing her talk about her life when she would be dead. It was as though she’d given up on anything good happening in this world, and only had the next life to look forward to. If you read the recent rulings from the Supreme Court it’s as if they’ve given up on anything good happening in this world too, but also are trying to hasten us all, in one way or another, to the “next world.” If the baby that you shouldn’t be carrying doesn’t kill you then the guns that they made even easier to get, and easier to carry around, will. Or if neither of those situations do you in, then tying the hands of the EPA to reign in pollution and other hazardous-to-our-health chemicals will. One of my own coping mechanisms may have some similarities – dreaming of living in another, better, count...

  A few weeks ago I was standing at the downtown square with lots of other women, holding signs and shouting. One woman had a sign saying that she couldn’t believe she was still having to fight for the right to control her body. I understand that sentiment. During that day, we rallied and listened to moving speeches, but I left not knowing what to do other than make what donations I could to various organizations helping with the fight. I also left the rally feeling slightly guilty, but fortunate, that I’d never been put in a situation where I either needed an abortion or had to help someone acquire one. When I was an adolescent I remember a neighbor telling my mother that her daughter-in-law was getting an abortion, not seeming to acknowledge that I was present, and maybe this wasn’t something I should be hearing. The woman and her husband had a child already, around my age, and they couldn’t afford another one. Strangely I don’t remember my mother having muc...

I should state up front that I am a white woman, and compared to many in this country I would be considered privileged. There have certainly been times in my life that I didn’t fully grasp that and said and did things that make me cringe now, wondering how I could have been so unaware, but I never had the power mixed with that cluelessness to affect the lives of so many people in such drastic ways. The U.S. Supreme Court does have that power, and appears to have a majority of clueless wonders that are about to do just that. Depending on what poll you look at, anywhere from half the country to three-quarters support the right of a woman to control what happens to her body (i.e. get an abortion), yet it looks very much like that long-held civil right will be taken away by what, I view, is absolute cluelessness of the world we live in, and with five of those justices being white, it really is impossible to not proclaim it white privilege after hearing their comments...