Boom!

Usually, this blog steers clear of politics. After reading a few posts, you know I’m irredeemably liberal, but I don’t usually comment on direct political issues. “Back in the day,” I was the voice arguing for peaceful engagement over the violence espoused by more radical friends. I remember clearly how The Revolution was just around the corner in 1968. Somehow we got past that.

Right now, though, I think that many state governments, and the Supreme Court, are having a let them eat cake moment. And I worry that they may have made the revolution without intention. It’s an old problem of unintended consequences due to poorly conceived actions.

It might take years, but much hope and belief in progress for all sorts of minorities, the disenfranchised, and people experiencing poverty have ended in a spate of poorly thought-out “conservative” laws and opinions.

One of the things we learned about social justice over the years was that it wouldn’t come all at once, but incremental progress is needed to keep the ship of state underway toward the ultimate goal of equity. We now seem to be heading towards the reefs, and using an old cliche, many of our politicians and judiciary members are rearranging the deck chairs as the ship begins to sink.

I have not changed; I still favor peace over violence. I’ll vote as I believe and feel strongly about the power of the ballot in my state. But what about those jurisdictions where the franchise is threatened, Gerrymandered, or suppressed? Don’t think that it’s all going to stay quiescent forever.

A James Baldwin quote comes to mind: “One day, to everyone’s astonishment, someone drops a match in the powder keg and everything blows up.”