I dislike Margaret Thatcher, and it’s interesting to me when people argue, But she was a woman! Shouldn’t we celebrate the fact that she was a woman in power?
No. There is nothing to celebrate about ruthless power whether it’s male or female.
And that’s what I feel today, learning at 7:04 a.m. that DOMA is unconstitutional. Finding out minutes later that my marriage would now be recognized by the federal government as it’s already recognized by my state. I am privileged to live in a marriage equality state, because 70% of my fellow citizens do not. And yesterday this same douchey court kicked apart Tribal Sovereignty and the Voting Rights Act, and on Monday they made it easier to be an asshole in the work place, and have consistently said corporations have rights that citizens don’t. So, in short, I feel my privilege keenly.
Legal marriage with the civil and tax benefits it brings is indeed a privilege. It shouldn’t be, but for a while yet, it is. And I can’t tell you how I cried this morning. I can’t tell you how I’m crying now. How sore my heart is for wanting my country to be more kind and reasonable than it is. Don’t be ruthless with your power. Don’t be thoughtless with your privilege. We fight for every footstep. Every one. Hacking through the wild places. Making a path.
Last night, I watched Wendy Davis stand in her tennis shoes and refuse to yield. That. That is what I want for us. To press for a kind and reasonable country one unyielding action at a time. To stand with a battle cry of support around us. Let her speak. Let her speak. Let her speak. Compassion, my friends. Compassion is the path to justice.
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the intersectionality of oppression (and therefore of liberation) was something that we learned about in seminary. how actions are linked, with wide consequences reaching far into the lives of others different from us.
these rulings, taken together, mean: freedom and legitimacy for some, exclusion and illegitimacy for others.
My Old Testament Professor, a Rabbi, would say of any scripture passage we were studying: "You always have to ask yourselves: Who is in? And who is out?"
Therein lies the crux of the struggle for wholeness and personhood: that we as human beings will widely include, and widely exclude, and not see the theological consequences of our lack of unity, humanity, and common lived experience.
You’ve said that beautifully. We must make room at the fire.