Why I'm with HER

I swore this year I would not post heavily on political matters.  My friends know my politics and I’m not likely to sway anyone of a different mind.  So why state my opinion?  There is one important reason: I want to go on record as standing for what I believe.  So, feel free to ignore this post if you are apolitical. Also, be aware that I am not going to engage with any who feel the need to comment on this.  I am simply stating my position on my own page and blog. 

I am old enough to have been denied equal access to educational coursework in a public high school due to my gender. That same high school had a whole building for boys’ sports and lockers while the girls had the basement.  I am old enough to have been let go from a desk job because I was pregnant.  I once worked in an office at a newspaper that had only a men’s room because the editor did not believe women should be reporters. I had one friend who had a back-alley abortion. I don’t take women’s rights for granted.  My mother’s generation fought and bled for them and my generation has had to fight to keep them.  I am old enough to know we could lose these hard-won rights. As a mother to two women and as a grandmother to two more, I always keep this in mind while voting.

That alone would lead me to vote for Hillary and for blue down-ticket.  But there is more.

I have never bought the narrative that Hillary Clinton is dishonest, a liar, or some master manipulator.  I have followed her career closely and she has been vilified at every turn for daring to be a strong woman in a man’s world.  When she was first lady and worked for healthcare reform, she secured her fate as a hated feminist. I remember pundits saying she was trying to break the traditional role of first lady and she should go read to children at a hospital or something similar. But, she managed to get healthcare through for children.  She was placed in a losing position as the wife of a cheater.  Had she left him, she would have “broken her marriage vows” and “been unforgiving.”  As it was, she stayed and has suffered, not for her own misdeeds, but for her husband’s!

Is she flawless?  Of course not.  No one is. She has played the political game better than most.  What has caught her up has not been actual misdeeds, but her assumption that she would be given the same leeway as her male counterparts.  In her long and public career, she has put up with innuendos and investigations that have never led to an indictment, much less a conviction.  Despite this, the men (mostly) doing these investigations have felt free to not only censure her, pontificate on small points, and pass their own personal judgments, but have lied and in at least one, case fabricated so-called evidence against her. Her patience in the face of this will go down in history.

She is not the lesser of two evils.  I reject that completely.  She is competent.  She is experienced.  She is a leader by temperament.  Yes, she is a politician.  So is Chris Christy, Newt Gingrich, and dozens of others much more soiled by their involvement in politics than she.  Yet somehow they come back like bad pennies after proven misdeeds while she is expected to dissolve due to innuendo.   Nope.  It’s a level playing field.  If there’s dirt on it let’s do something about that instead of imputing dirt onto a relatively clean candidate just so she doesn’t outshine the boys.

Also, I compare her to her rival.  As a female, I am offended by Trump’s words about females.  As a human, I am offended by his words about minorities and the disabled.  As a supporter of veterans, I am aghast at his behavior toward veterans and the Gold Star family he mocked.  As someone who follows politics and reads the fact-checkers, I am appalled at his daily lies; even when confronted with taped proof of what he has said his denials are epic.  His immoderate comments on nuclear weapon use is chilling.  His supporters include North Korea and the KKK.  A person is known by the company he does not disavow.

I believe that he is so unprepared for the presidency that were he to be elected, he would have to be controlled by others.  This, too, is chilling.

If Hillary –  or any woman – had the personal past that Trump owns with boastful bravado, she would be vilified and ridiculed, not embraced by the religious as he is.  That also extends to the spouses.  Hillary has not said a single word against Trump’s wife for her nude modeling or her uncertain work status as a new immigrant, but Trump has made much political hay from Bill’s past misdeeds and even from the misdeeds of the spouse of one of her aides. 

There’s also policy.  I believe in separation of church and state.  I believe in equal rights for all.  I believe in science and climate change.  I want my granddaughters to never worry about their reproductive choices being stripped from them by politicians.  I want to ratify the ERA.  I want sensible gun legislation and reasonable immigration reform.  I want economic reform that does not try to balance the budget on the backs of those who can least afford it.  I don’t want to make America great again; I want to make it greater than it is today. 

Hillary is a well-qualified candidate and Trump is not.  So, I’m with HER and I’m proud of it. 

Considering freedom of religion

We talk a lot about freedom.  How well we actually understand the concept is unclear.  No where is this more apparent than with freedom of religion.

Freedom of religion is enshrined in our Constitution, in Amendment 1, where it clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." (The rest of the amendment deals with other freedoms.) It is the first freedom mentioned in what we know as The Bill of Rights.  These go back to 1791 and were clearly important to the framers.  So, I think most people would agree that this freedom is legitimate in an historical sense.

But when discussing any freedom there appears to be some disagreement about what is meant.  In future posts, I will deal with each in turn, but here I would like to focus solely on "freedom of religion" as indicated in Amendment 1.

You may have noticed that the phrase, "freedom of religion" does not itself appear in the Constitution.  That is merely how we commonly refer to it.  The Constitution says plainly that Congress cannot establish a state religion or prohibit the expression of religion.  That effectively removes our law-making body from the subject.

Yet ... here we are in 2016 arguing over religion in schools, in the workplace, in medical centers.

Growing numbers of Americans reject all religion outright. Others practice various religions, many of which have conflicting tenets. Many are some version of Protestant Christianity and Catholics also have large numbers in the US.  Some, however, practice non-Christian religions, from standard Judaism to arcane Druidism, Wiccan, and many others.

So, if we are to set aside the Constitution and establish religion as a guiding force for our citizens, which one would be chosen? And how would we choose it?

The answer, of course, is that we cannot do this.  Religion, whether it is prayer in schools, prohibition of medical procedures in hospitals, or tests for religiosity in order to hold public office are all unconstitutional.  That is the very essence of "freedom of religion."

Some have parsed that phrase saying the Constitution meant that we have no freedom "from" religion, only of which one we may choose.  That shows both ignorance of the Constitution itself and of prepositions.  For "of" means precisely "direction or distance from," and expresses the relationship between "freedom" and "religion."

Freedom of religion as expressed in our Constitution means that the government shall take a hands-off approach to religion in all ways. It will not endorse or establish one religion over the other nor will it prohibit any citizen from practicing any religion.

So where does that leave our heavily Republican, religious right? It leaves them free to practice whatever religion they choose, but they cannot, by law, force their beliefs on others nor prohibit conflicting practices.

Yes, this is controversial but it should not be because the Constitution says in plain English that religion is not a function of law.  You cannot get around this.  If one is opposed to abortion or same-sex marriage on the basis of religion, no one can force them to have an abortion or marry someone of the same gender. However, they cannot deny those rights to others who do not share their religious beliefs.  That is how freedom works.

Piety is not a value in our common law.  In every country where it is, it results in not just denying others' the freedom to worship, or not, as they choose, but also to eventual oppression and civil war.

Pray all you like.  Have as many children as you choose.  Wear whatever makes you happy.  But leave the rest of us alone!

Winds of Change

There have been times in my life, especially in recent years, when I have felt the beginnings of the winds of change at my back.  This is a subtle feeling, rather like seeing something in your peripheral vision, only to turn and not be able to see it.  Such has happened again recently.

I have homeschooled one of my granddaughters and she has done well, so well that this year she is working an above-grade curriculum. Our first day was yesterday and I was dismayed as I reviewed, at the gaps in knowledge she exhibited.  She can write better than most adults I know.  She can format her paragraphs with good topic sentences, good details, good conclusions.  I have taught her to think on paper.  That is what I value.

Yet yesterday, when she could not reliably identify the parts of speech (!) or the sentence subject/predicate, I was dumbfounded and not a little angry.  How can I have schooled this bright child for years, turning her into a skilled writer, and managed to miss such fundamentals?  She felt so bad she cried.

I made my lovely granddaughter cry.

Sigh.  And there is also the matter of my finances.  June wiped me out: a car repair, a broken TV, lost eye glasses, a waterheater replacement, and computer replacement.  Then in July the IRS billed me an additional $400 for last year's taxes.  All of which has left me without savings and facing property taxes.  Argh.

Then there is my book.  Only one of the four professionals to whom I have given it for review has gotten back to me.  Her review was encouraging but it is not enough.  Now I must noodle the others all the while I continue to research and write and also begin to seek a publisher.  And this is work that does not pay me a cent.

Toss in my inability to make pottery and my inability to pay for the surgery I need in order to get back to it, and I am left scratching my head.  Should I liqudate my pottery studio?  I have thousands of dollars in equipment and materials.  Should I leave my large home? Would I even be able to sell it?  And what then?  Move into some rental? How would that help?

Yes, it's getty breezy here.

Catching up with an old friend

Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend.  Maybe friend is too deep a word to describe our limited relationship, but we certainly are of like-mind on many things in life. So we met at a wonderful little natural food cafe and discussed our lives in some depth.

What struck me most about this was how fortunate I felt.  This lovely lady has been abandoned by her entire family and treated poorly.  It is clear that their recent attempts to contact her - after decades of neglect - were just to find out if she is still alive (she's a bit older than I) and maybe ingratiate themselves into her will.  I was horrified.

By contrast, I scrimped and saved to attend a recent conference and gave my credit card a workout paying for the airfare and hotel. When I returned home, I found out that my daughter had picked up my hotel tab! I have little to leave my family but they are active and supportive in my life.

I enjoyed my lunch with my old friend and hope we can get together more often.  Life is just too short for pettiness and acrimony.

Contentment examined

I have never been accused of being emotionally tone-deaf.  I know the full range of human emotion simply from living a full life. I know grief from the deaths of family and friends, some harder to bear than others.  I know joy and love from children, grandchildren and even my silly pets.  I have been enormously satisfied with some of my work and gratified that so much of what I set out to do in life - raising great kids, mastering pottery, writing - I have done. However, it is contentment I find most pleasing.

To be content is more than just being satisfied with things as they are.  To be sure, a certain lack of striving is key to it, but contentment does not rule out the continuing search for excellence, it just makes it more natural.  Contentment comes with a reassurance that one is on the right path, that one can meet whatever may come with equanimity, and that one is simply enough.

I think contentment, with the exception of infancy, is the province of later life.  Youth is too rushed, too worried, too full of ambition. When one is content, one might trade one's body for that of the younger self, but never the mind.  The lessons learned are too valuable, more precious than knees that work painlessly or unlined skin.

Contentment is full of acceptance - of those things missed as well as achieved.  It can acknowledge what might have been and see potential that might have been better used but rests easy in what is. It understands that the past are future are only versions of today.

There are those who have more than I, more money, more family, more friends, more success.  There are many who have less. Contentment has taught me to live without comparison.  For how does one compare the quality of the love one shares with that of another?  Contentment teaches comfort in one's own skin to such as extent that one can reside there without envy, bitterness, or fear.

Today I am content.

The way life leads

Every morning I go into my office and begin writing.  I work on my book about rare genetic disorders and on my blog about the same topic.  I find myself promoting others' work, their research, their endeavors, their papers.  I do this because life has led me down this strange path, away from commercially profitable writing and the pottery I love.

Lately my mind has wandered.  Somewhere amid the ATP energy production and substrate selection and all the different, horrible disorders, my mind is seeking clay.  My fingers can almost feel the moist, smooth, surface give as I turn it on the wheel in my mind.  I toy with the idea of hauling out a bag of clay and doing something, anything with it to scratch this itch.

But I don't.

There is the issue of my arm, which screams in pain just watching someone throw, and the pressing need to finish this book so I can move on.  What to, I have stopped trying to plan.  For plans are for fools.

So everyday, I snap on my office light, pull out my chair, and write.

What a long, strange trip it's been!

 I recently ordered refills for a little gizmo that clamps paper instead of stapling it.  I got it while working for FEMA in Mississippi in the wake of Katrina.  With it, I clamped copies of selected passages from a book I am writing on a class of rare genetic disorders. As I did so, I pondered the strange tangents my life has taken.

I have been, in turns, a wife and mother, a hippie, a potter, a reporter and editor, a Kelly Girl, an activist, a science writer, a divorcee, a grandmother, a homeschooler, a substitute teacher, a photographer, a homeowner, a hitchhiker, a cat lady and a dog owner, a carpooler, a grantwriter, a disaster worker, an ad writer, a novelist, a swimmer, a caretaker, a friend, unemployed, and now, a writer about genetics of all things!

At 20, one does not think one's life will take such diverse paths, and I know, for many, the road is rather straight.  For me, though, my paths have taken me to live in tiny cabins in the woods and in big city apartments, and to work among the poor, and to interview the rich in their fine environs - all the while struggling to raise two daughters, keep my sanity, pay my bills and be creative.  Yet somehow, here I am: in my own modest home with a few sheckles in my pocket and looking forward to a trip that is both business and pleasure.

I have been something of a generalist all my life.  I have made it my work to observe people.  I know what drives them.  I know how they think and what they want.  I know what pains them.  Yet here I am writing on a topic so specialized most people have never heard of it.  Somehow it seems fitting.

What a long, strange trip it's been!