Land of the Free, Unless You're a Woman
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)
Land of the Free, Unless You're a Woman
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday 04 July 2014
The flags are fluttering, the backyard barbecues are blazing, and the Souza marches will strut into the sky to greet the grand thudding starbursts of fireworks. It is the Fourth of July in these United States, our annual national celebration of freedom.
What a sad joke.
Not long ago, five men on the Supreme Court handed down their decision in the already-infamous Hobby Lobby case. In it, they ruled that the owners of "closely-held" companies with "sincere religious beliefs" can deny medical coverage for certain forms of contraception, if such forms of contraception go against those religious beliefs.
(snip)
The decision in the Hobby Lobby case is many things. It is the continued elevation of Christianity over all other religions, and over the choice to hold no religion, in a country where no single religion is supposed to hold sway. It is yet another flat declaration that corporations have more rights than people. It is a purely political action to strike a blow against the Affordable Care Act, the right's most beloved boogeyman. It is a very sneaky back door through which alleged "people of faith" can peddle their onging discrimination against LGBT employees.
And, of course, it is simple, old-fashioned woman-hating from top to bottom.
It is another jarring attempt to remake the United States according to the opinions of men like Utah's Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who agrees with the court's decision because women only use contraception for "recreational behavior," and not for significant and pressing medical reasons or motivations of personal freedom. It is an attempt to remake the United States according to the opinions of men like Washington Post columnist George Will, who recently argued that women on college campuses only cry "rape" because they want the "coveted status" of being a rape survivor.
Two years ago, Cecily McMillan was participating in a peaceful Occupy protest in New York City when a police officer came up behind her and grabbed her violently by the breast. Like any normal woman, McMillan threw an elbow to stop the assault. For this, she was convicted of assaulting a police officer and sentenced to 90 days at Rikers Island. It could have been seven years.
McMillan was recently released, and gave a harrowing description of the conditions she and the other women incarcerated at at Rikers endured: women dying, women bleeding vaginally for hours, women with cancer, diabetes and other ailments who were denied medical treatment while being stacked like so much cord wood in overcrowded bunk rooms.
McMillan is free now, but still in jail, incarcerated with every other woman in the Rikers Island that is these United States, thanks to the five men who handed down the Hobby Lobby decision. The food is better, and there are no bars on the doors, but it is a prison nonetheless, where women do not enjoy equal status, where women can and will be denied basic and necessary medical services, because somebody's bastardized version of Jesus considers them to be lesser creatures, and not nearly as important as a corporation.
Enjoy your "independence" day.
The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24773-william-rivers-pitt-land-of-the-free-unless-youre-a-woman
= new reply since forum marked as read
I wrote about the myths of the "founding" of this country (from a Zinn perspective of course) in the socialist progressive group.
... for example: I never got to know my grandmother (a wonderful woman I've been told) because she died at age 43 from having given birth to 13 children (and none of them were twins, and everyone of them lived.) 
you can bet your ass there would be no discussion about abortion and birth control pills would be free and available in gas stations, right next to the beer.
Not saying women don't buy beer. 
my country right or wrong (remember when it was the hawks that said that?) I am living upside down.
How much better would things be, if we gave that a try?
But we can't, because Republicans want to shovel more tax money to the ultra-rich. Sigh. 
Again, you nailed it. Thank you for explaining what a "closely held" corporation was.
Have a great 4th! 
"The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/03/scalia-women-discrimination-constitution_n_803813.html
stinks. 
