Do you ever get a song stuck in your head? How long does it take to go away? Is it the whole song, or just a phrase? Did you hear it on the radio or just come unbidden into your mind? How often does it happen to you?
This week, the song has been Onward Christian Soldiers. It just came unbidden one morning as I was getting ready for work. I don’t even know the last time I had heard that song, maybe elementary school. When it started, all that came to mind was recent events related to abortion and women’s rights.
Specifically, it was the tragedy of the 10-year-old from Ohio. She was raped. The rape resulted in her becoming pregnant. With Ohio’s new major abortion restrictions, she was not able to obtain one in Ohio. She then went to Indiana to have the abortion, which has become national news and another polarizing event that should have been a private decision.
Sadly politicians, mainly white males from what I can tell, have said she should have carried to term. One, Jim Jordan of Ohio, even made it sound as if the situation was a lie, made up. Adding insult to injury for the poor child by someone who should have known better.
I keep wondering at what point will the women, and the men who care about them, wake up? Wake up to acknowledge and accept elected Republicans are working hard to take women, and anyone else who doesn’t look or think like them, back to the 1700’s. A time when women and children where chattel, people of color were slaves or similar, interracial marriage was illegal, and the gay community was deep in the closet.
This is, in many ways, a religious war. It is being waged against those of us not straight white men. Unfortunately, this religious war is tearing our country apart. It is intermingled with the rush to authoritarianism. In the long run, they will lose the war, but the battles have, and will, hurt a great many people. I fear it may cause the deaths of too many people. Needless preventable deaths.
All of this can be mitigated if good people—young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, white, Black, people of color, true Christians who believe government has no place in religion, anyone who believes in Democracy—stand up and be counted. If they say enough is enough. If they call people out. If they show up at the polls. If they actually vote.
Will you be one of those good people?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 