Wake up! Do something good!

Over half the voters in the US are women. We must protect our right to choose what happens to our bodies, not let politicians dictate that we become criminals if we can't possibly raise the child, and we need an abortion. This choice is totally up to a woman. Of course a man did have something to do with the event, and hopefully he will have some input. But only a woman with a womb will have a pregnancy, and then give birth. And then what will happen with the infant? The choice is totally up to a woman. 

Women are voting in November. Women have allies, men, relatives, friends, others who know what a burden that choice is for each woman, and who respect that The Choice Is Hers To Make. So VOTE!

And the rest of this picture is that Democracy itself is on the line with autocratic fascist thugs trying to take over not just in America, but in other countries all over the world. Unfortunately conservatives have been railroaded by tRump and TeaParty politicians, being fed lies about Democrats constantly so they believe we are baby killer communists! Not true folks!

BUT...

The following quote points out that states' laws are the (perhaps) the ones governing abortion rights, not Congress. If this is true, nothing either pro or con-abortion rights can matter in Congress. But I do remember, Congress makes the laws, and the Supremes just enforce them.

With regard to national abortion initiatives, Republicans and Democrats alike take heed: The Constitution does not allow Congress to "enforce a constitutional right by changing what the right is," a legal scholar writes. (Washington Post)

"Last spring, as the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade loomed, congressional Democrats made the mistake of attempting to federally impose abortion rights nationwide. Now, some Republicans want to return the favor by seeking to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Both abortion rights and antiabortion proposals assault the constitutional structure, which protects the right of the states to decide fundamental moral issues.

" In the 1997 case City of Boerne v. Flores, the court confronted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, legislation that contravened a court ruling that had itself overturned earlier court cases protecting religious freedoms. Congress claimed that it had the power under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions” of the 14th Amendment.  Boerne dooms any congressional effort to overrule Dobbs.

"Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court: “Legislation which alters the meaning of the Free Exercise Clause [of the 14th Amendment] cannot be said to be enforcing the Clause. Congress does not enforce a constitutional right by changing what the right is.” The power to determine rights under the 14th Amendment rests in the hands of the Supreme Court, not Congress.

"As Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence that provided the crucial fifth vote to overrule Roe, “The Constitution is neutral and leaves the issue for the people and their elected representatives to resolve through the democratic process in the states or Congress — like the numerous other difficult questions of American social and economic policy that the Constitution does not address.”

Entire text here: Washington Post.com/opinions

And another view of the world we live in...Elizabethan Harvest Moon. Glastonbury Tor, England. Thank you KEV PEARSON Photography.

It makes me wonder what the Second Elizabethan era will be called by historians!

 The headstone of  Jebediah Dwelly. One of the brave men who came early to America and built the civilization that eventually became the experiment of a Democratic Republic.  I'm his descendent over 7 generations. I wonder, will there be another 7 generations after mine.

And I will keep up with the Donut Economics model (from yesterday)...where progress is within a circle rather than an unacceptable rising arrow to nowhere. More blogs will have this topic.

One wonderful Tiny Desk Concert by Allison Russell. Thanks to fellow blogger 37th dream  who shared this!

Today's quote from Allison:

"I met my biological father, Michael George, and my paternal family when I was 30 years old. I learned that I am a first-generation Canadian on my father’s side. He was born and raised in Grenada, one of 13 children. I found out that ours is a family that values education deeply. I found out that we have a historian in the family who has traced our line back to an enslaved woman named Quasheba, who was sold off the coast of Ghana.

Such was her strength and resilience that she somehow survived the transatlantic crossing in the hold of a slave ship, and was eventually sold to a large sugar cane plantation in Grenada. She survived multiple rapes and sales. She survived backbreaking labor in the cane fields. She survived her children being taken and sold. She survived, and she founded generations. I wept to learn her name. I am honored to be her many-times-removed daughter and am eternally grateful for the gift of her strength and resilience. Though we can never know if Quasheba was actually from Ghana, in this song I imagine that she is.

When I was in Cameroon in 2007 with my other band, Po’ Girl, I was especially struck by three things: not being a visible minority for the first time in my life (though I was called la petite métisse pretty frequently, since I’m “pale” compared to most Cameroonians); how many Cameroonians felt the need either to apologize for or disclaim their forebears’ involvement in the slave trade—“My village, they never sold any slaves!”—and how many people there told me that I looked Cameroonian. Ghana is just a little ways up the west coast of Africa from Cameroon."

 — Allison Russell

And a couple more blogs that I keep track of. https://sydney-city.blogspot.com/

https://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/,   https://lindahoof.blogspot.com/