Another Wait in Line, Another Confrontation with Culture

Different day, different grocery, different line. This one didn't have the automatic checkout counters. Not that I insist on buying groceries without them, but this one's in the neighborhood.

And not that the line was long. I was the second of two. Nothing all that bothersome. So I waited.

He was counting his change to get the exact amount. Maybe he didn't have an extra single. Maybe he just insisted that it comes out to be exact.

It was annoying. He didn't notice me at his left, not three feet away. Or maybe he did, and I didn't matter to him. But if one chooses to be in a line, one chooses, too, to wait for those ahead, regardless of their individual quirks.

There are people like that. They are about my age. And, I suppose, in the same way that I insist on being actually waited on by a checkout person, he insisted on not carrying around as much change in his pocket any longer. And the world could wait another minute or two. So there.

This one shouted his allegiance to the world. He wore a red "Keep America Great 2020" cap. His campaign, too, had begun. So there.

I must say that here, on the east side of Milwaukee, I don't see many of those folks. I must also say that I'm rather glad. I mean, there's nothing really wrong with them. They might even help me if I'd fallen, despite having my Obama t-shirt on, which occasionally I do in the summer. If he fell, I would help him, despite the awful cap.

I can't abide by his support for this monster, though. Logic just doesn't work, and I go with logic pretty often.

I noticed, though, another very definite item he was wearing, this one pinned to his jacket: A pro-life button. To me, that shouted far louder.

The two are simply combined: Keep 45 as president, and they get the Supreme Court they need for the rest of their lives. And, admittedly, so far, so good for them. With Mitch McConnell riding shotgun and in literal control of appointment processes--so much so that he's cancelling the need to have filibusters by the opposing party to block some of them, as retched and unqualified as they may be--the assembly line's well underway on each federal level.

But they're waiting for the crescendo of the opera: The reversal of Roe v. Wade, and what they believe will be the cancellation of abortion in America. Ruth Bader Ginsberg's health is reportedly all right for the moment, but that thread is thin. That's what's at stake here: the right of the woman to choose how to deal with her, and only her, own pregnancy, and whether beyond reasonable limitations that's anybody's business but hers, her doctor's, and her god's (to paraphrase Colin Powell, a Republican, at least the last time I looked).

Really, that's all they want and have ever wanted. And then God himself (a male, of course) will rule over the land unto eternity, instead of these horrible sinners, and all will be well. Foreign policy and making NATO pay up and tariffs and even immigration are secondary, though connected to the same mentality: the world has always been a little too complicated. Time to re-simplify, even though the world has moved far beyond them. In fact, because the world has moved far beyond them, it's their turn to strike back against it.

Especially if you're pregnant and would rather not follow through. Then you are in hell. And you belong there.

That's why the excessively religiously afflicted shout that once pregnant, it isn't a choice. But it is. The technology's here for all to utilize. It's only not a choice if you don't know of the alternatives.

And I know women who have utilized it, one of whom even wrote about it in a book. They seem pretty decent people to me. Even the one who died when the medical expert made a mistake. It was within the gestation limits of the law. It was in a hospital. It was scheduled. Nobody was panicking; she just didn't want it. It went terribly wrong. It worked perfectly on the fetus, but didn't avoid her the way it was supposed to, and she died.

I've always wanted to ask those bent on condemning those who make that choice: Do you believe that the soul of that woman, a colleague of mine, went to the everlasting fires of hell? Do you? And tell me, please, how you can make that conclusion? How can you know what happens after death?

A worthless pursuit, though. I'd get the Bible quoted somehow, and to compare quotes is to fight on their turf. One always loses in a way, because it's the thinking outside of that box that leads people to enlightenment, and that's what scares them: That others are not exclusively tied to a good book that isn't the only book that discusses morality and history, and which may or may not be accurate in parts.

I don't mind that fellow and wouldn't mind any of it whatsoever if our culture and political status weren't so tied to the support of someone who is simply using the faithful to get his way, dealt with his vengeful attitude, for what appears to be the sole purpose of making himself famous and crushing anyone who deems to stand in his way. And he sure is doing that, so far, while he ignores the larger effects.

That's what I really want to tell him: He's using you. He doesn't care one bit about you. You're encouraging him to ruin us. Us, which includes you. There's another chance to turn this away next year, but based on the state Supreme Court election result in Wisconsin it will be a much closer-run thing that it once appeared.

The shock effect has worn off on most of us. The sad fact of the matter is that there's much more of this mentality out there than we ever wanted to admit. It is as threatening as it is sad, and it will take another gigantic effort to thwart it.

Whenever I see these buttons or signs or banners, I think about all that. And all I did was stand in line, again.

Be well. I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark