Okay so now that we know how I express gratitude let’s talk about the real issue of the day. The American Supreme Court is not being kept in check, at all. Like I was taught as a young American that our system was built to have checks and balances. Each branch of the government was able to check the other branches to keep everything in balance. This is a novel concept and the system has worked for a while now but we have a few spots where one particular branch seems to have an advantage over every other group, the courts.
To understand we have to go back to the original founding documents of this nation. So, we reach back into history and we find a little document called, The Constitution1. You can read the whole document if you so choose but we need to look at one article in particular and that is of course Article III.
Did you know there is nothing in the Constitution that says a Supreme Court Justice has a lifetime appointment? Yeah it’s true. In the Constitution it says in Section 1, “The Judges, both supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” What does that mean? That doesn’t say lifetime it just says good behavior. So any justice that does something bad or against the rules of the court (Alito and Thomas are 2 fine examples) should be removed as this would be considered not “good behavior”.
In the Federalist papers, which is where the founding fathers got all their ideas from, good behavior is seen as no better way of securing a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the law. Which is great in theory. The world was very different in the 1700’s and the idea that a group of people who got appointed in their 40’s and 50’s are still able to make impartial and informed decisions in their 80’s and 90’s.
Clarence Thomas has been on the court since October 23, 1991. He has served through 6 presidents and has taken bribes and is confirmed to have sexually assaulted a woman prior to being appointed as a supreme court justice. His wife is a MAGA crazy and the only reason she wasn’t storming the capitol on January 6 was probably because her husband told her it might look bad for a sitting supreme court justice’s wife to be attacking congress. Clarence Thomas was born in 1948, he is currently 76 years old. In 2004, not 2024, 2-0-0-4, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas has been buddies with Harlan Crow. We could go on about Crow but we will just say he has a s**t-ton of money and spends it trying to make it so he can get all the money and everyone else will just die a horrible burning death2. Thomas isn’t even the worst part of this whole debacle that is the “Supreme” court.
Kavanaugh is a whiny bitch boy that lied during his confirmation hearing when he said the President is not above the law. Amy Coney Barrett is sitting in a stolen seat (don’t get me started on Gorsuch) and also lied during her confirmation hearing when she stated that a president is not above the law. Neil Gorsuch should never have been allowed to sit on the court after the death of Antonin Scalia. The whole thing is a sham and even when the law states one thing they just decide another.
I can allow things to happen and as a white man I will probably be fine but other people won’t. I don’t like to see people suffer. I have friends who are LGBTQIA2S+ and they need support and help sometimes. They deserve to marry their significant other and have all the same rights and options that a “traditional” marriage has. I have friends who are single women who may need healthcare services because they don’t want to bring a child into this world, or don’t feel fit to be a parent, or have health issues and are worried the pregnancy will not hold.
I will say it again, I will be fine. I am in a “traditional” marriage. I am white, and I have a stable job. I am not the only person who needs things from my government. I am not the only person that is represented by the 535 Members of Congress and the President. I am not the only person who has to live with the outcome of these Supreme Court decisions. I am not the only person who has to live in this world.
I am a parent, a spouse, a friend, a man (whatever that means), and I am a member of the human race. I do not make decisions with only myself in mind. I have to look to my kids, my spouse, my friends, my neighbors, and my fellow humans. You may be able to turn a blind eye to those suffering around you and only focus on your personal outcome in the next election or even just in your daily life but I can’t. I can’t look around and see people struggling to just be left alone to live their lives. A fundamental right that seems to be lost on a lot of people right now.
Some of you reading this may not live in America or even understand the American system of government, that’s fine. You don’t need to. What I think I want to say is that I show gratitude to people by making decisions that are for the greater good and not always for my greater good. So I pay a little more in taxes but I also get happy neighbors and better public transit. I pay more taxes so I don’t have to step around those experiencing homelessness because they have services that help them find a place to stay and get back on their feet. I vote for social programs that don’t effect me so people working a full-time job don’t have to worry about whether they can eat tonight or afford the rent.
So I show gratitude by showing up and supporting people and programs that help. There are too many organizations to link but a quick google search should help you. If you are in America please do your part this fall and vote for the greater good not for selfishness. If you are not you can show gratitude by voting in your own elections or giving to an organization that helps people.
- https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript ↩︎
- I have no proof that this is the actual outcome he hopes to achieve but his views align with a party that wishes to strip regulatory authority from federal agencies (which the court just did this past week),stop women from having any say in what happens to their bodies, making it illegal to be homeless (also an opinion that was handed down last week by Thomas’s court), and many other things that would allow him to line his pockets with Benjamins while you and I try to figure out if our kids can eat tomorrow. ↩︎
The Fresh Persepctive 