A multitude of blessings...or not
Received e-mail from a friend today with News to Make You Cranky:
Westboro Baptist Church to Demonstrate in Seattle, June 13-15, 2009
Their targets include the Northend Seattle JCC, Temple Beth Shalom, the B'Nai Brith chapter that was shot up a couple of years back, the offices of The Jewish Transcript (the local Jewish newspaper), the Seattle Pacific University graduation ceremony (a Christian university--apparently not Christian enough), Garfield High School, St. James Catholic Church, and more. At least they're equal-opportunity haters. I've written to the blogger who posted the news to ask if any counter-demonstrations are being planned.
In the meanwhile, suddenly the country is once again asking why women aren't like all the rest of us, i.e., male WASPs. The conversation is focused on the SCOTUS, as the magnificent Ruth Bader-Ginsberg comments about the men on the court Not Getting It.
Justice may be blind, but my question would be why, in this day and age, does society still use as its default normality for justice the White Male flavor of blindness? Women constitute a little more than half the population of the US. Why are our perspectives subjected to such condescending examination? Why are women jurists and lawyers still ignored or devalued? American society is still learning about the values of a diversity of races, ages, genders, and experiences. In theory, we value the idea of same; in practice, we're far behind in our ideals. (See first subject in this post re: far behind our ideals.)
::sigh::
Westboro Baptist Church to Demonstrate in Seattle, June 13-15, 2009
Their targets include the Northend Seattle JCC, Temple Beth Shalom, the B'Nai Brith chapter that was shot up a couple of years back, the offices of The Jewish Transcript (the local Jewish newspaper), the Seattle Pacific University graduation ceremony (a Christian university--apparently not Christian enough), Garfield High School, St. James Catholic Church, and more. At least they're equal-opportunity haters. I've written to the blogger who posted the news to ask if any counter-demonstrations are being planned.
In the meanwhile, suddenly the country is once again asking why women aren't like all the rest of us, i.e., male WASPs. The conversation is focused on the SCOTUS, as the magnificent Ruth Bader-Ginsberg comments about the men on the court Not Getting It.
Justice may be blind, but my question would be why, in this day and age, does society still use as its default normality for justice the White Male flavor of blindness? Women constitute a little more than half the population of the US. Why are our perspectives subjected to such condescending examination? Why are women jurists and lawyers still ignored or devalued? American society is still learning about the values of a diversity of races, ages, genders, and experiences. In theory, we value the idea of same; in practice, we're far behind in our ideals. (See first subject in this post re: far behind our ideals.)
::sigh::