Like most women, the past week of enduring the Kavanaugh hearing brought up many very bad memories and created hurt, anger, and a chill of cold fear for myself and my fellow females in this country and on this planet. Justices Roberts, Alito and Thomas, (and Kavanaugh) are Catholic, and Gorsuch is a conservative Episcopalian (conservative Catholic-light). This religious make up is not an accident, and conservatism is about protecting the authority of patriarchy.
In addition to being dragged through the fetid swamp of Kavanaugh’s life and suffering the outrage at the Republican senators who threw their venom at women and Democrats for requiring justice and lawful protection of women, we learned just how deeply the Catholic Church’s plotting and planning runs through the attack against the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. The Jesuits who taught and guided Kavanaugh have since withdrawn their support for his candidacy, but this hot mess is far from over.
Kavanaugh comes from a Catholic cabal which lines conservative Catholics up for high places in government to push their conservative Catholic agenda. According to Amnesty International, this is an all-out attack from the US Catholic Bishop’s Conference; ironically, Catholics from around the world have signed a statement that all these same men should resign because of the thousands of sex scandals which for decades they covered up or in which they took part.
Of course five conservative justices would also harm workers’ rights, consumers’ rights, civil rights, and immigrants’ rights and destroy the balance of power among the three branches of government in addition to crowning themselves kings of the US. Looking at the role conservatives play in women’s rights, Amnesty International offered 12 facts in their study of the El Salvador abortion ban:
• Women receive a two-to-eight-year prison sentence for an abortion; health care providers serve 12 years.
• Miscarriages are considered aggravated homicide and can receive a sentence of up to 50 years.
• In 2017 16 women and six girls under the age of seventeen were convicted.
• Clandestine abortions are common. 11% of these died.
• Fifty seven percent of pregnant females resort to suicide.
• These laws exist despite the fact that 74% of the population favored abortion when a woman’s life is at risk. [See their Supreme Court if you think they can be reined in.]
• In El Salvador, 1,346 rapes occurred last year (two-thirds of them under the age of 15 or mentally incapacitated), according to Amnesty International. (amnesty.org). Do we really wonder why El Salvadoran women are flocking here?
According to a report in Salon, this same group of bishops masterminded the Hobby Lobby lawsuit to keep women from accessing birth control. If you don’t see a pattern here of a very bad future for women if even one more conservative judge is forced on us, you have not been paying close attention. This whole hearing feels pretty “rapey”.
The term Christian Conservative is an oxymoron; Christianity is liberal. Beside that, we need to look at the history of Catholics and Protestants bringing countries to war.
The Catholic Church should have lost all credibility after their Twelfth-Century inquisition of the Cathars or the Fifteenth-Century Spanish Inquisition, or the Holy Wars, which were no more than a bunch of privileged young thugs raiding the Middle East for fun and profit or the witch hangings, drownings, or burning. Conservatism is the anti-Christ.
P. Ann White, Meridian, TX
Editor Notes: The Catholic Church gets more credit, and blame, for organization than it deserves. In 2016, Catholics voted 50% for Trump and 46% for Clinton (cf. Protestants’ 59% for Trump).
In “You Can Teach Kids Hard Work, But Feed Them First” (10/1/18, TPP), Sherry Brennan’s narration of the humiliation she felt, even as a child, that her family had to depend on food stamps, is superb.
Yet, she just as clearly made us realize that desperate parents will put aside even the strongest pride to spare their children from the specter of hunger.
Sadly for parents who live in third world countries, there’s no such thing as government subsidized food for poor families. During my childhood I lived in Mexico, where many of my classmates were very poor and came to school hungry. Thus, each morning, before classes began, the school’s administrator provided each child with a cup of milk and a small roll.
When given that meager offering, some of the children reverently kissed their bread before they ate it. Even to this day, the memory of the sublime beauty of that private observance clouds my heart with sadness.
For the members of Congress who are pondering whether to pass the version of the Farm Bill which will deprive two million recipients of their coverage under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, I have a suggestion:
Go on a two-day fast before voting.
David Quintero, Monrovia, Calif.
The Bible is written for our learning. Everyone who wants to be Christian should know the Bible. Even a few chapters of Psalms or Proverbs 1 and 2 (for instance) will be helpful to begin with. Anyone without knowledge of the Bible will only know what other people say of what it, or God, says, not knowing if these others are knowledgeable in fact. Too many things people say God says, requires or wants, or will do or has done, the Bible contradicts.
Only in the last 500 years have so many people been taught to read. The Bible was written by and for the learned few. And these people were not thrilled when the Bible was translated into the “vernacular,” the common language of the people (i.e., the laymen). Many people died to make the Bible available to as many as possible. Yet still too many people are either forbidden to read it or persuaded that “they couldn’t possibly understand or believe it,” so they don’t even try to read it for themselves. And they are left to the “mercy” of many who claim to speak for God. To one who knows what the Bible says it will be obvious whether or not someone really knows what he says he does. And that’s why everyone should read and know what the Bible says, at least.
We are living in a time when it’s too easy for anyone to say anything about anything. Journalism grew in order to check out the veracity of what was being said. We still need those “fact checkers” today. Journalists may make mistakes sometimes, but other journalists are always checking journalists, as well as the sources of the “news.” If no one does this, it’s all just noise.
People who have a written language have a better way of passing on their knowledge than those who rely on just word of mouth. “Put it in writing” is a way to be sure of what someone actually said. It’s what lawyers refer to and why we have laws, lawmakers, courts, etc. To ignore all this, whether from honest ignorance or intentional disregard, is to be lawless. Nations, civilizations, operate by laws.
What all this electronic communication does is omit much of that from our field of thought. Acting on impulse becomes the norm. Too much is then left to chance or is simply, actually, illegal or, at the least, unwise.
This is what is going on right now, from Trump on down. That’s why things are so crazy.
Education needs to be deliberate, systematic, absorbed. This takes time and energy and patience.
Without education, our future is going to continue to be as it is right now and get worse.
God wants us to know and to be smart. So Christians, especially, should be for education. And religion, if it doesn’t encourage this, is not of the God of the Bible, which is the Word of God, whether or not anyone believes it — though they should believe it in order to be considered, at least, a Christian. But even “nonbelievers” will profit from it. That’s its greatness. Amen.
Cheryl Lovely, Presque Isle, Maine
This country was populated (albeit thinly) with Native Americans, derogatorily called “Red Indians” by European newcomers. Soon, in their quest for land, the Europeans pushed out the Native Americans — remember Plymouth Rock, anybody? We got into war with the British colonizer — remember the war of independence? Then came the Civil War to liberate slavery, followed by Jim Crow laws — remember “Black Lives Matter”? Our hatred for communism and socialism gave rise to the “Domino” theory and we waged a war on Korea — the war is not over and remember we still have troops there. Millions marched in the streets to change George W. Bush’s mind regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, but he went on ahead with it — the insurgents (known in the Middle East as freedom fighters) soon morphed into ISIS — remember Raqqa?
We have lost thousands of lives in all the above and a colossal amount of revenue. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is right in saying, “America has never been great.”
Austine Molline, Jamaica, N.Y.
Will Durst’s “Battle of the DC Network Stars” in the 9/15/18 TPP brought forth a giggle or two regarding Omarosa Marigault-Newman. I watched some of The Apprentice episodes when she was a contestant.
Despite her lofty education (she claimed to hold a Ph.D.) she came across as an arrogant and lazy worker who delighted in back-stabbing her teammates. This came out in the TV conference room time and again, yet Trump kept her on. When he finally did fire she, she broke into loud sobs, provoking much eye-rolling among the other contestants. Knowing all this, or “stable genius” prez hired her anyway. Her book is bound to be a humdinger.
Betty Crowder, Honeydew, Calif.
To all the staff, regular and guest writers of The Progressive Populist, this is a long overdue thank you especially to my first must-reads, Margot Ford McMillen, “Rural Routes,” Jim Hightower and any one with the last name of Cullen. Your words give light to the darkness that has engulfed us here in Arkansas and elsewhere across our country — even in the dark moments of your own lives. And have kept many of us in the fight on more than one occasion. In my prayers I thank God for people like you, and ask him to keep you strong and well, and that you may ever know how very deeply you have strengthened our lives.
Janis K. Percefull, Hot Springs, Ark.
From The Progressive Populist, November 1, 2018
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