Independence Day greetings (Ha!)
Between last Friday's announcement that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is stepping down from the bench, and the previous day's news that Time Inc. is prepared to concede First Amendment rights, I'm not sure what I exactly there is to celebrate. I suspect I have more to fear and certain I have bigger questions about social priorities. Does anyone know who is that man behind the curtain?
(A few weeks ago, brother Bush of Florida attempted to overturn a court ruling allowing Terri Schiavo the right to die. I should have remembered bad things come in threes.)
I grew up in what I didn't realize were "liberal" times. They were simply the times in which I lived. While I wasn't paying attention, the times, they were a changing, and not exactly in the direction Dylan envisioned when he wrote the song.
Conservatism with a capital C has come to reign. On my little island, it's sometimes hard to recognize, because for all the randomness that is New York, most of us here cling to some antiquated notion of individuality. We forget there even is a Kansas, Dorothy and Toto notwithstanding.
We just lost the swing vote on abortion rights in the Supreme Court. However often I question how well the media do their job, what the media report is about to be curtailed. Less is not more here. Better for us to use our critical faculties to sort through media overload than not to have the choice at all.
Oh, yes, and we're still losing the war in Iraq, and there's some interesting fallout from 10 Downing Street. Somehow that has fallen into the category of yesterday's-newspaper-is-tomorrow's-fish-wrapping. In fact, the ink hasn't had time to dry on the newsprint; we're just too tired to read it.
I feel like I should have an abortion next week whether I need one or not. I'm writing as fast as I can. And I'm redrafting my health care proxy to try more explicitly to keep governmental hands off my body when I can no longer make my wishes otherwise known.
Please, don't tell me this is as good as it gets.
(A few weeks ago, brother Bush of Florida attempted to overturn a court ruling allowing Terri Schiavo the right to die. I should have remembered bad things come in threes.)
I grew up in what I didn't realize were "liberal" times. They were simply the times in which I lived. While I wasn't paying attention, the times, they were a changing, and not exactly in the direction Dylan envisioned when he wrote the song.
Conservatism with a capital C has come to reign. On my little island, it's sometimes hard to recognize, because for all the randomness that is New York, most of us here cling to some antiquated notion of individuality. We forget there even is a Kansas, Dorothy and Toto notwithstanding.
We just lost the swing vote on abortion rights in the Supreme Court. However often I question how well the media do their job, what the media report is about to be curtailed. Less is not more here. Better for us to use our critical faculties to sort through media overload than not to have the choice at all.
Oh, yes, and we're still losing the war in Iraq, and there's some interesting fallout from 10 Downing Street. Somehow that has fallen into the category of yesterday's-newspaper-is-tomorrow's-fish-wrapping. In fact, the ink hasn't had time to dry on the newsprint; we're just too tired to read it.
I feel like I should have an abortion next week whether I need one or not. I'm writing as fast as I can. And I'm redrafting my health care proxy to try more explicitly to keep governmental hands off my body when I can no longer make my wishes otherwise known.
Please, don't tell me this is as good as it gets.
posted by alice, uptown at 2:33 AM
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