Thursday, July 16, 2009

Judgment Day

My cat awakened me at three in the morning. After that I was up, so I began to peruse the news as I guzzled my devastatingly strong coffee. First order of business was grabbing a link to a video of the questions that our Congress gave to the to-be-sure-to-be-appointed Supreme Court Justice, Sonya Sotomayor.

I am interested because I want to be informed of what controls my future. I watched about twenty minutes of a video where senators were asking her questions. During that time she spoke, but had not answered a single question.

If I were in the position of the Senator or Congressman asking the question, I would expect a "yes" or "no" to specific questions. After having received none, I would repeat, and ask Her Honor, the judge, to just say “yes" or "no”. But no, these old white men in Congress have no balls, and likely lack wisdom that a Latina like Sotomayor would contribute. They allowed her honor to filibuster until she ran out of time.

I would conclude that this person is incapable of making a commitment, is lying, or wants to cover her ass no matter what, so she is not taking a position on anything.

Sotomayor spoke for most of the time while I watched this video. I saw her, I listened to her own words. She said nothing that could be understood as yes or no. She had not answered a single direct question.

I gave up after a lot of disgust thinking that some of our members of Congress will push her into the position of a Justice of the Supreme Court regardless of her view, just because she is female, of a minority, and is compassionate about specific things.

Put yourself in Sotomayor's position, and ask, "Am I a minority? Am i a woman? Do I have a shitty background that makes me more compassionate than others? Do I have a wisdom that allows me to make a more valid decision than some old white man?" How would you answer?

I am not a Latina. I am a minority. I have compassion. I can tell the difference between "equal justice under the law" and "favoring ethnic or social groups". How would you respond?

I value the constitution of the United States of America above all. Without it we could be another France, Cuba, Venezuela, or Uganda. But when some elected politician says, “Our constitution is a living document, to be interpreted with compassion," I think, “vote the sucker out of office”. Alas, we can't vote Superior Court Justices out of office. Once in, they can do a lot of damage for life. As for the “Latina who can make judicial decisions better than old white men”, I’ll say, give her the boot now.

But then, I am a minority: male, conservative. My compassion is for the deserving tax-paying responsible citizen, rather than the stylized downtrodden abused vocal minority.

We have to support the ones who take responsibility and pay the bills. Otherwise, at some point, nobody will be paying your bills.

2 comments:

doll said...

I have noticed something very similar with our politicians. They never give a straight yes or no. They are very practised at deviating from the question and taking it where they wish to go. I am certain it is part of the reason they have a very low degree of respect from the populace. They may never have to justify their behaviour if they never make it clear what they plan to do, it is quite despicable.

Elle said...

God, thank you for saying this. Crap like Section 8 has ruined communities, giving freeloaders nice houses, while people working one or more jobs can't afford a studio apartment in a bad section of town.