Truly terrible, People.
Sadly, I don’t think we are regressing as a country. I think it’s worse. This is how we are moving forward. This is what it feels like to live in a country that is decidedly drifting towards fascism, quickly. This is what calculated minority rule feels like. By calculated I mean this has been taking shape for 40 years.
Even though we knew it was coming, the elimination of Roe v. Wade as a precedent giving all women the right to make reproductive decisions for themselves is devastating. This means that more than half of the citizens of this country are now denied the freedom of their physical autonomy. Their bodies now belong to the state.
You can say that ‘it’s still legal in some states,’ or ‘it only applies to women of a certain age’ or ‘it was a weak statute to begin with.’ But why say any of those things? The Supreme Court overturned women's human rights, period. That is what happened.
The costs will be unwanted children who will bear the brunt of what that implies, case by case. Drug addiction, criminality, depression, emotional and mental problems, destitution, more unwanted children. It will also, of course, mean thousands of people dead. Between this decision and the gun ruling, these actions will have consequences in the form of human deaths for the foreseeable future.
I feel bad for all women. I feel frightened for the country. I feel angry. This will affect everyone, all Americans.
I’m not saying any of this to be righteous or to virtue signal. I am saying this out of a fading belief that our country, as an evolving democracy, will survive and also out of a severe empathy for women and what this blow means to all of them.
Most men support freedom of choice. Sometimes desperately. Own it.
Today I talk to Atsuko Okatsuka about her strange and interesting immigrant childhood and her comedy. Thursday I talk to Laura Veirs about songwriting, her new album and our mutual friend Lynn Shelton. Good talks!
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
Denied the Freedom.
