Plurk paste

I am broken-hearted over my country today.

I rank this last Supreme Court decision, that it's now a crime to sleep in public, right up there with their eminent domain decision years ago, when my husband had to listen to (probably hours of) rants.

Roe v Wade, Eminent Domain, and now, sleeping is a crime. In my mind, this is the big 3 court decisions. Think about this, it's perfectly legal for the government (local, state, or federal) to steal your home and it's illegal for you to not have a private place to sleep.

We're being fenced in, if we're not wealthy enough to buy our way out.It's easy to see where this is headed.

Easy to take it to its logical conclusion.

Thomas has already threatened the overturning of other decisions.And, once he's out of office, if we still have an unbalanced court, I suspect Loving will also be up for overturning.

Guys, I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes.

Growing up, I believed all the lies.

Anyone could succeed in America, you just had to try.

I'd proudly face the flag, put my hand over my heart and recite the pledge. I'd sing all the patriotic songs at the top of my lungs: "From the mountains, to the valleys, to the oceans white with foam...".

The sad thing is, I still love the country. It's a beautiful, amazing land.But I don't love America. All the things that made me proud to be an American are dead.

I believed the lies.

I believed Emma Lazarus' poem. That we really wanted the people who had no where else to go, that we'd welcome them with open arms and give them shelter and tell them, "You're safe now."

I lived in a small town. When I was in middle school, because there was no coach for my little brother's soccer team, I became a soccer coach.

I had no idea, going in, but it was probably one of the things that shaped my values as an adult more than almost anything else.

Soccer was new to my county. No one knew how to play. We were given a rule book, that was it.

I memorized the book. Well enough that I'd also ref sometimes for games my team wasn't in.

A friend from school's family was from India. They'd moved here when she was young, but her father would give me tips.

Then, a group of political refugees from Laos was sent to our town, housed with various families while the government found a permanent placement for them.

One of the teens, a year younger than me, would come watch us play. Soon he was teaching me.

That led to me becoming (on paper) the coach of a middle/high school team as well, where I'd coach and play, depending on the number of players we had. The high school teams played more pick-up style games. If there were enough players, there'd be a game, otherwise it would be canceled. Anyone of the right age could stop by and play.

Sometimes my friend's brother would join us.

He'd seen more violence than his brother, and lost that innocence that still clings to teenagers as long as we let it.

But he loved soccer, and would sometimes come by and teach my kiddos how to run with the ball and pass to another player.

There was also a man from Scotland, who actually was one of the people who'd helped bring soccer to our county. He'd stop by nearly every game and give me tips and praise what we were doing right. (To be honest, I had a bit of a crush on him.)

It's funny, I think in many ways, because I lived in a small town I was able to gain a more diverse world view than I likely would have in a larger town.

My experiences taught me that helping refugees benefits them, but that it benefits us just as much.

That we need people who are different than us.

There used to be a saying, "Us four and no more."

It was about taking care of your family (the perfect sized family of 4), and leaving everyone else out in the cold.

It was supposed to be a "don't be like this" thing.

Supposed to be.

More and more, over the years, I've felt like our country is embodying that saying.

"No, we don't want refugees here."

"Sorry, we can't have the homeless here, we'll send you to a liberal state instead."

"Oh sorry, we're going to steal your land and then forbid you to fall asleep on what's now public land."

"It doesn't matter if you weren't planning on having a child, if it's not your fault that you're pregnant."

"You must keep the child, even if doing so is likely to kill you."

"Oh, you can't afford to live here anymore, we've raised property taxes in order to drive you and your children out."

And then: "Guess what? You can now go to prison and work for someone who's already rich enough that if we cared to tax them, our government wouldn't be in debt. But because they're wealthy, they deserve more, and we'll give it to them."

The writing is on the wall, and I wonder where it'll end.

How far back will we go?

Will we make it so anyone who isn't a rich white male has no rights?

Everyone else imprisoned for the slightest discrepancy, because our labor goes right back into their pockets?

Will we make getting sick a crime? Although we mostly already have, the insurance lobby is so big that almost no one can stand against it, and they don't want their money to go away, so they pay out as little as they possibly can.

So if you get sick, you're screwed.

I'm sorry, I'm on a soapbox today.

I haven't expected much from the court for a while, but even so, they keep letting me down.

And this just feels like a tipping point.

Like climate change, it feels like we've reached the point where the dominoes start falling. And all the dominoes we've stacked so carefully over the years are about to tumble, running in a line and then curving, another line, and another and another, until the last domino falls, creating a prison of our own making.