Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/politics/page/175/)
Posts about politics and social change, from a spiritual progressive perspective
In the post 9/11 era, Americans live with a new set of norms, which many people have come to accept with resignation as necessary for “security.” As more and more Americans weigh in on the side of safety over civil liberties, the relinquishment of rights that is asked of us in airports could be stretching far beyond airport walls.
Last week, the Supreme Court, by what seems like divine intervention, struck down much of DOMA and Proposition 8 in one fell swoop. This ruling has created a new pathway to citizenship for same-sex bi-national couples. This is a big step forward in the fight for just immigration reform but it’s just a step. A recent survey of the homeless community in San Francisco identified that over 25 percent of the population living on the streets is LGBT. And thousands of people of color and other minorities have just lost protections around their right to vote. We have come a long way, and we still have a very long way to go.
Last October, I was arrested for civil disobedience with eight other people during an anti-drone demonstration at Beale Air Force Base. Charges were dropped against four of my co-defendants. The case against the remaining five of us continues.
Those of us who have grown up in the industrialized Western world have been fed a steady diet of faith in progress, dating back to the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. There may be setbacks, and still, on the whole, we are on a path towards a bright future. I’ve always been suspicious of this tale, and only more so over time. It’s not so much that I don’t see aspects of life that I trust have improved since hundreds or even dozens of years ago. It’s that I also see aspects of life that have gotten worse, some alarmingly so, within that same time period.
No one has ever accused Justice Antonin Scalia of timidity. So it’s not surprising that his opinion in United States v. Windsor, the case that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), fairly screams: I’m not a bigot. I’m not. I’m not.
On this day when the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and paved the way for same-sex marriage equality in the nation’s largest state—a state, like many others, brimming with undocumented immigrants from NAFTA-ravaged Mexico—I can’t help but wonder if we might really begin the process of redefining marriage, and well beyond the right-wing definition of redefinition: namely, turning the age-old institution that has its roots in patriarchy and proto-rapism, and has never fully unshackled the chains, into a spring of human freedom grounded into universal brotherly and sisterly love.
On Tuesday, President Obama expressed “disappointment” in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which all but eviscerated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and called upon Congress “to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls.” Other critics of the ruling, however, were not so temperate in their characterization of what could prove to be a game changer for ongoing efforts to counter voter suppression.
Violence against people perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) has existed for millennia. Recent anti-LGBTQ violence in New York City is the latest chapter in this sorry history of bigotry, oppression and discrimination. Urgent action is needed to put a stop to the growing number of targeted bashings and murders in our community. Our respective faiths call us to not only stand up for victims of direct violence and oppression, but to cooperatively work to transform violent religious rhetoric until all LGBTQ persons are safe inside and outside faith communities.
“The Attack” is a powerful, must-see film for those of us interested in Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians. This essay briefly analyzes the film with attention to its divergence from the book on which it is based and analysis of the politics surrounding these changes.
Tomorrow my sister Kathie plans to go to a “Moral Mondays” demonstration in Raleigh. She may even participate in civil disobedience there. Because she lives in North Carolina, I’ve been watching the right-wing coup that has been taking place in what has been a relatively progressive Southern state. Big money, corporate sponsors, and entrenched political players are clearly at work here, aligned to make true democracy irrelevant. And yet, in the face of incredible odds against them, people are rising up to say “no.”