Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

Mon Dieu - Watching History Burn

Like the rest of the world, I have been watching, open mouthed, heart breaking as the incredible cathedral that is Notre Dame burns today.

One does not have to be Catholic to understand this loss, to feel the significance.  Notre Dame, lovingly referred to as Our Lady of Paris, transcends mere religion.  Make no mistake, she is a world renowned beauty, a symbol for the faith, a home of architecture, art, relics - all symbolizing the history of Catholicism. 

But she is so much more than a church.

There is a reason why tourists from around the globe - the faithful to the faithless - flock to her.  She stands, as so many great structures do, as a connection to the past, a home that contains the stories of how we arrived at this place in time.  Notre Dame, like the pyramids, Machu Pichu, Stonehenge, the Colosseum, all echo our collective history.

What is being lost before our eyes is not simply a building.  We are losing a touchstone.  Construction began with the laying of her cornerstone in 1163.  In the ensuing years she has survived the French Revolution, desecration, additions, restructuring, a World War.  Paris has grown up around her - buildings and people rising and falling in her grand shadows.  Yet she stood.

That this fire comes at the beginning of one of the most significant weeks in Catholicism - this is Holy Week - Palm Sunday was just celebrated there yesterday, Good Friday along with lesser known celebrations and observances for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (commemorates the Last Supper) - all leading to Easter Sunday.  This loss would be heartbreaking at any time, but that it comes today is particularly painful.

An average, 13 million people visit Notre Dame each year - that means roughly 30,000 a day, peaking at 50,000 during weeks like this.  They come because they are Catholic.  They come because they are tourists.  They come because they are lovers of art, of history, of lore.  They come to see the gargoyles made so famous by Victor Hugo in Hunchback of Notre Dame.  They come to gaze at the stunning stained glass windows.  They come to pray, to light a candle, to take a picture, to feel a connection, to simply stand in awe.

Notre Dame is overwhelming in her majesty, her detail.  Intricate sculptures so high that they were only ever meant for the gaze of One.  Relics are housed within her spires, her vaults - the most notable being what is believed to be remains of the crown of thorns worn by Jesus when crucified.  This artifact, having a long and storied history beyond the obvious, includes being piously guarded by Louis IX.  The relic has been housed within Notre Dame since 1806.  Her organ, with a rich and storied history of her own is in danger, as are the bells, the windows, everything.

The pain being felt in Paris is deep and will be lasting.  The pain felt by the faithful around the world is real.  Just as is the sorrow and loss being felt and observed by those who may be secular, but are not without soul.  It is part of the human condition to seek and appreciate our past, to understand, to honor not just the history of how a place came to be, but the humanity involved in its creation.

I well remember standing on the steps of the cathedral in Cologne Germany.  And then standing inside her.  My mind could not fully grasp the hows - it was majestic, soaring, sweeping - how did we mere mortals conceive this, let alone have the hubris to attempt its construction?  No modern technology, fancy cranes, OSHA rules for safety.  Yet there she was.  A breathtaking assembly of spires, and glass, and stone - having been started in 1248.  It is a sight I shall never forget.  A testament to the will of the human spirit, the depth and breadth of our ability to dream, the strength we possess to will something into being.

That day, the words of poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy, written in 1873, but made immortal by Willy Wonka, echoed in my brain, "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

That is the spirit that pulls people to Notre Dame.  To stand in a place we know was built by people just like us, yet not know where to even begin.

My son, an artist, is broken at the thought of what is being lost forever in terms of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, glass, wood - all manner of artistic expression used to translate feelings without words, scenes without movement, history without writing.

My daughter, offered a dream trip anywhere in the world at age 16, asked my sister to take her to Paris.  Consumed by a love for history, Culley basked in the glory that is the Louvre, Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe, and yes, Notre Dame.

As I sit here now, watching the updates, a Ministry spokesperson has stated, "Firefighters may not be able to save Notre Dame Cathedral." 

This is a tragic, monstrous, profound loss for Catholicism, for the world.  And that daughter, who stood in awe in the Lady's presence ten years ago, just sent this to me.  Perhaps Notre Dame's true lasting legacy, her deepest message and meaning, is found in Culley's words.

Notre Dame is something that no amount of pictures or history can fully encapsulate; you have to stand in its shadow to truly “get it”. There is something about it that creates a true sense of awe that cannot be explained. Is it the size? The stained glass windows? The gargoyles? The flying buttresses? The vaulted ceilings that seem to stretch into forever? Yes, those are all part of it, but there is just a feeling you get walking up to its intimidating facade or walking through the huge wooden doors that transcends words. In the deepest, purest sense of the word, it fills you with faith. Not a religious faith, but a faith in us as people. Someone dreamed this, and others cobbled it together, working as one to create something that people the world over would flock to, just to stand in awe of, for hundreds of years. It gave me faith in people, and all the amazing things that people are capable of. I think in today’s world, something that reminds us of the good that we are capable of is a rare commodity, and to lose a symbol that reminds us of that is heartbreaking.

"It gave me faith in people, and all the amazing things that people are capable of." Amen, Culley.  Amen.  Notre Dame may indeed be lost to the fire, but the human spirit is noncandescent.

The Abortion Of Autonomy

If you have been living in a hole the past few years, Handmaid's Tale comparisons in relation to the ongoing political landscape are probably lost on you.

Get out of your hole.

It has been with increasing dread that so many of us have watched the onslaught of female related legislation being brought forth and, in many cases, turned into law.  The religious wrong right, those hypocritical standard bearers of "right to life" and "family values," have been steadily eroding away the rights of female bodily autonomy.

It's not enough that we have legislators who think one can swallow a medical camera to check out our reproductive organs (Vito Barbieri of Idaho), our courts are being stocked and stacked with judicial asshats who have zero regard for sexual assault victims, or understanding of why one cannot just "close your legs" and keep a rape from happening.  That nugget came from the mouth of New Jersey Superior Court judge John Russo.  He literally asked a rape survivor this question in court.

From the transcripts, he started this way:

“Do you know how to stop somebody from having intercourse with you?”

She responded by stating she could try to physically harm her assailant in addition to saying “no” and attempting to flee.

He continued: “Run away, get away. Anything else?”

She responded: “I — that’s all I know.”

Russo: “Block your body parts?”

Plaintiff: “Yeah.”

Russo: “Close your legs? Call the police? Did you do any of those things?”

I was raped.  Let me assure you that simply closing one's legs is a tad impossible when one is being held down by someone larger and heavier and intent on his task at hand.

Russo's insulting and ignorant questioning has earned him a trip in front of an ethics committee where he may be suspended three months without pay. 

It is this kind of bullshit from the patriarchy in this country - complete ignorance of laws they are writing to govern women's bodies; disdain bordering on sado-masochism when it comes to understanding sexual assault and dealing with the victims - that have led us to a new point where female bodily autonomy is in serious danger of going extinct.

Just this week, Ohio's Republican governor (color me shocked) has signed a heartbeat bill into law - the most stringent of abortion legislation in this country.  It outlaws abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected - as early as 5-6 weeks.  Most women do not know they are pregnant that early, you know, not having an at-home transvaginal ultrasound wand at our disposal and all.  This makes it practically impossible for a woman to choose an abortion, to choose what she can do with her body.

Of course, the verbal masturbation from those who will never contemplate an abortion was immediate:  "The heartbeat bill is the next incremental step in our strategy to overturn Roe v. Wade," said Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis. "While other states embrace radical legislation to legalize abortion on demand through the ninth month of pregnancy, Ohio has drawn a line and continues to advance protections for unborn babies."

Oh, Mike, you witless wank who should have been a stain on a mattress, no woman is trotting up in her ninth month and saying, "You know, doc, it's just not working for me. I mean, the fatigue, the swollen ankles, and I really want to go to Cabo with my girlfriends next month.  Can you just carve this thing out, please?"   

IT. DOES. NOT. WORK. THAT. WAY.

The only procedures that are being performed are when something is profoundly wrong with the fetus.  And it is called an induction, not an abortion.  And it is a deeply, horrificly painful decision that is come to only after much testing and much consultation between the woman and her doctor.

Mikey, no matter how much your tangerine hero in the White House wants to slobber on at his idiot conventions hate rallies about babies being ripped from the womb in the ninth month, it simply is not true.  But then you know that.  You are just distracted by that massive boner you get at the thought of controlling women and reducing them to baby factories in your masturbation fantasy Gilead.

How about we ask the experts? 

“That is not happening in the United States,” Dr. Aaron B. Caughey, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University said when interviewed by the NY Times after Trump's last round of verbal horseshit. 

Jen Gunter, a San Francisco obstetrician and gynecologist, weighed in as well, “There are no nine-month abortions. There are situations in which labor is induced because of problems in the last month of pregnancy, but “at 38 or 39 weeks it’s always an induction and is simply called a delivery." And, she adds, virtually all abortions past 24 weeks are performed for “very severe” birth defects.

But not to be outdone by the great minds in Ohio, Texas legislators have said hold-my-beer.  Led by Republican (*shock*) Tony Tinderholt - such a family values man he is on his FIFTH WIFE - they are currently debating legislation that would criminalize abortion.  Yes, they want to legally categorize it as homicide, with all the implications of that word, that ruling.  In Texas that means execution.

That's right.  All those Bible thumping, crocodile tear leaking, intrusive pro-lifers want to kill a woman who has an abortion.  Let that "logic" sink in.

What activists literally warned about, and were called hysterical for, during the Bush era when the Unborn Victims of Violence Act was passed, is on the doorstep of becoming a reality.

Think about it.  Let's say my rape had resulted in a pregnancy I did not seek, and at 16, I certainly did not want.  My rapist would not be sentenced to death for hurting me, for violating every fiber of my being, for violently taking what he wanted.  But should I have sought an abortion to end the nightmare of what had been done to me, I could be sentenced to death.

There's your Sharia law, you backwards, repulsive, hypocritical conservatives.

The bottom line for all of them is control.  That so many are men is chilling.  That so many of these men are drafting legislation like this when they could not find a clitoris with a map and a flashlight, let alone understand the profound implications of pregnancy - wanted or unwanted - to women, is reprehensible. 

Abortion is no one's idea of a picnic at the park.  But what takes place in my body is mine to control, my choices to make.  No different than a man being diagnosed with a tumor in his ass.  His choice - whether based on pain, fear, desire to live - is to consult a doctor and have it removed.  At no point should my, or anyone else's opinion or fairy tales or lies have any bearing or influence, or present wall that keeps him from medical care.  His body, his choice.

Kind of like when a dude masturbates into a tube sock.  Now, I could go all Biblical and demand legislation controlling his impulses to self satisfy, after all, he is destroying half of what is necessary for life to begin, right?  Voluntary mansplatter, as it were.  Why should he be allowed to kill so many potential babies by jacking into a Kleenex?  By their logic, he shouldn't.  By their logic, he should only be allowed to use his penis for procreation with someone to whom he is married.  Riiiiiiiight, Texas? 

<insert crickets>

Abortion is legal in this country, period.  And it needs to stay legal.  It is a medical procedure.  Over 90% of all abortions are done in the first 13 weeks.  Caught early and decided upon, many - roughy 31% - are done via medication abortions.  Drugs can be taken in the quiet and privacy of a woman's home.

But when they are done later, qualified, compassionate doctors are needed to perform medical abortions and inductions, both the doctor and woman free from the fear of legal consequence. 

I get that morality is the huge hangup for so many.  You may get sad, angry, bereft at the thought of abortion, but just as with your condemnation, hatred, and "moral superiority" in the face of all things LGBTQIA, your morality and influence peddling should begin and end at your body, your choices, having zero bearing on my ability to make choices for my body.  You should not be able to prevent me from getting an abortion, just as I should not be able to force you to have one.  Your body, your choice.

See how that works?  And as for your Bible, the way you deign to speak for God on this and so many other issues, people?  Shut both your book and your pie hole.  As my grandmother used to say, "Mind your own knitting."  If there is an afterlife, a single supreme being out of the 6,000 religions currently being practiced, and retribution to be had?  Then that is between that god and that person.  I highly doubt your god will have you on standby to hold court with him or her.

Abortion is not a casual affair.  But even in cases where it is viewed that way by a woman?  Still none of your business.  The lion's share of abortions are performed only after a woman has endured fear, pain, trauma, or gut wrenching news from her doctor.  Whether that fear is from the implications a pregnancy would bring into her life; whether the pain and trauma are from a violent rape; whether a much desired baby simply is found to be severely compromised and not viable - none of these have a tinker's damn to do with you.  (Although I do find hilarious the hypocrisy of how many conservatives people the pews of this land after having a quiet abortion.  Kind of how red states are the biggest viewers of online porn, and also the biggest takers of tax dollars for aid.  Ahhhh, that old timey family values, pull yourself up by those bootstraps mantra they chant.)

The Handmaid's Tale was written as a dystopian novel.  A work of fiction, yes, but Margaret Atwood based everything she wrote on actual events, laws, abuses found throughout the world.  That so much is being echoed now in the reality of our laws, laws written by men - as in the fictional Gilead - should be chilling for every woman, regardless of your stance on all topics of reproduction.

Because just as in Gilead, even the women who started out staunchly supporting the crushing patriarchy, quickly realized that in their religious zeal, they had agreed to relinquish not just their decision making and their voices - but to the complete abortion of their autonomy.