Supreme Court Justice: Should Be About The Law

The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has brought to the front the nomination and confirmation process.  With on party in the White House and another party running the Congress, there is always a struggle about who will be confirmed as the next sitting judge.

My belief is this:  It shouldn't matter about political affiliation, personal beliefs or religious ideology.  It should be about the law, Constitutional Law to be exact.  They should be well versed in the Constitution, have a clear understanding what it truly means and be able to settle matters as a point of law. Anything other than that is an absolute miscarriage of justice.

The Supreme Court is our highest legal forum in our system of justice.  If we allow political, personal or religious beliefs enter into, we are actually going against the idea behind the Constitution.  The separation of Church and State means that religious ideology shouldn't come into play.  However, that doesn't mean that they can't rule on certain Bill of Rights issues, but only so far as the Law and Constitution allows.

For example, the Supreme Court can rule whether or not a particular act or idea is covered and protected under the  First Amendment.  However, it should not be used to ban a particular religion or belief system.  It should not be used to curtail anyone's personal faith and beliefs.  It should be used to give those people the right to practice and believe as they so choose.

The Supreme Court should not be beholden to a particular political view or ideology.  For instance, it should be used to allow people of all creeds, colors and genders the right to vote and participate in elections.  It should not  be used to limit certain freedoms according to how the Justices personally believe or their political party says they should believe.

A hot button topic that enters this arena is that of abortion.  The religious right believes there should absolutely be not abortions.  The ultra liberals thinks that there should be no limits.  This is so much discord over this, it has literally torn our country apart.

But, think about this:  What if a a woman is raped?  Should she have to carry the product of her sexual assault to term because someone believes it a sin?  You may think "Well, they could give it up for adoption".

That's all well good except, adoption procedures in this country are extremely rough to get through.  Couple that with the fact that there are over 100,000 children in foster care today that are eligible for adoption, what is going to this child different.

Many pro-life people stop caring about the child once it's born.  But, if you force a child to be born to a mother who doesn't want it or can't afford it, then what are we truly saying about the child?  You can't complain about welfare mothers but take a way an option that will help them.

I'm not saying that abortion should be used as a birth control method, but I am saying we need to have choices.  What about the woman who already has 2 or 3 or more children, but is in the middle of a divorce and can't provide for the children she has?  Are the pro-lifers going to come and help her with the situation?  I don't think so.

That is why a Supreme Court Justice should put away his political, personal and religious beliefs.  They need to look strictly at the law.  They want to limit birth control for women, or even worse, funding for Planned Parenthood.  But, not every Planned Parenthood conducts abortions, but offers free or low cost cancer screenings, yearly exams as well as sexually transmitted disease testing.  They also counsel many women about birth control.

Those that do preform abortions, don't take just anyone and do an abortion.  There is required counseling, waiting period and discussion before the procedure is ever preformed.  If you limit birth control, take away options to pregnancy, many of those children still won't be born. Many of those women will have illegal abortions, which can pose serious health risks including infection, perforation of the uterus and even death.  The cost to our health care system would sky rocket.  Just take a look at what happened before Roe Vs Wade.

If we allow a Justice to use personal beliefs, political affiliations or religious beliefs trumps the law, then the law has absolutely no meaning and then nobody's political, personal or religious ideology is safe or protected.

Amazon What Were You Thinking

I use social media...a lot.  FaceBook, Twitter, yep I do them.  Not into Instagram, but will when I have a cell phone that actually takes pictures.  I do use Pintrest, and Reddit, and a few others.  For being in my 50's, I've accepted the techno revolution and have become quite adept at searching the internet.  As a matter of fact, if I can't find it on the internet, it can't be found.

I so some online shopping and was considering getting an Amazon Prime Account.  They have things that I would like to have and that free 2 day shipping is a blessing in disguise.

So, you can imagine my horror on Friday when I logged into FaceBook and saw that Amazon was selling T-Shirts that were disgusting...to say the least.  On the front, it show someone hanging themselves on one side and someone overdosing on the other.  Across the top, it said "Suicide Watch".  On the back, it said  "Got Suicide?". An organization I belong to Change.org had a petition to remove those shirts.  I happily signed and shared to everyone of my friends.

If you don't already know, let me tell you why this is so wrong on so many different levels.  First, for those who have survived suicide, it's not a laughing matter.  Nor is it something to make fun of.  It's hard.  There is so much emotion that goes with the grief of those who are left behind someone who completes suicide.  This triggered many of my friends as they are also survivor's of suicide.

Second, To those contemplating suicide, this shirt would push you to do it.  There is a lot of shame that goes with being suicidal.  There is so much judgement from people who have never been there and seeing something like this could very well be the thing that pushes someone over the edge.

If you haven't been there, haven't been in that frame of mind, then don't say a word.  You don't know.  Some people say that suicide is selfish.  Those are the people who have never been there, or have survived a suicide and this is how they deal with their grief, with the questions that come with suicide and the guilt that will always follow.  They don't understand how that person could choose death instead of being with them.

Suicide is about escaping pain.  Nothing more, nothing less.  There is a small percentage that commit suicide by accident (those that accidently overdose chasing that high, autoerotica asphyxiation to think of a couple), but that is less than 1% of all suicides.  The people who are suicidal feel pain, a pain that seems to go on and on.  The emotional pain of being worthless, not good enough (and trust me, this is a pain that never truly goes away) to live.  I've been there, I know what I'm talking about.

My point is this  Amazon should have had some type of oversight committee to approve something like this.  I get the first amendment. Hell, I count on it at times.  But, just because you have the first amendment, that it protects your right to speech doesn't mean you get to escape the consequences of what you are saying.  Several people I know were boycotting Amazon because this T-Shirt was so offensive.

So, Amazon, what were you thinking?  Next time, maybe take a look at what is being sold on your site, make sure that it's not just socially offensive, but that it doesn't trigger a situation in which others could be physically or mentally injured or worse, cause a death.  I believe in free speech, but I also believe in having a social consciousness.