Viewpoint: Anger over SupCo opinion only goes so far – time for action

I wake up today angry.

Angry that I have to explain to my oldest children before they go to school (one girl and one boy) what it means to have women (including trans-men for the sake of this post) not be in charge of making their own health care decisions.

Angry that radicals have taken control of the Supreme Court and believe themselves so above the law that they are planning to invalidate half a century of equality for women. Just because that is how they now want to vote and ignore the bedrock principle of case precedent that this country's judicial system was built on.

Angry that this will not stop abortions but will not cause women to have to somehow desperately seek unsafe abortions that may very well kill them.

Angry that we have elected leaders who are rejoicing in this action like it is some kind of savior for the ills of society.

Angry that there are men out there who now will have more bodily autonomy and basically more rights than women, than me, than my two girls, just because they happen to have been born with a penis instead of ovaries.

Angry that some did not take this threat to women's equality and violation of women's very human rights seriously.

But anger only gets you so far. So, it is time to take action.

Protests have started. That is good. Marches are being planned. Also good.

But we need to expand this into what can be done at a policy level. There are laws states can pass to protect access. To stop employers from discriminating. To stop harassment at abortion clinics. There is work to be done. And yes, it is rotten that we still have to fight this fight. But we do. So time to get it going.

But, some live in states, such as Montana, where some of our public leaders seem to want to take away rights, not protect them. There are steps cities can take to protect citizens even if the state legislatures will not act to protect our rights.

If you want ideas, look at this page about the different laws that can be passed to help protect abortion rights. https://publicleadershipinstitute.org/abortion-rights/

And as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, if we do not stop this extremism now, it is a rollback of rights that will not stop with only abortion rights (as the argument appears to be that these rights were not included in the US Constitution).

Many, many things were not included in the Constitution. Such as:

-women's right to vote

-women's right to own property

-the right of people who were not white and did not own property to vote

-Black American's right too vote or even be counted as a whole person

-Native American's right to be considered a US citizen

-the right of people of different ethnicities to marry

-the right of people of the same gender to marry

-and the list goes on and on. Basically unless you were a White male property owner, you did not have many rights - if any at all.

So I wake up angry, but I become resolved. Resolved to fight the fight that needs fighting. To stop the hate that needs stopping. And to step up when stepping up is needed. We can all do this.

We are all equal, even if some cannot seem to accept that. We will not go quietly into the night and allow rights to be taken away - period.