It is becoming more apparent, with each passing day, that what we consider “our country,” America, is more of a myth than a reality – just a collection of fifty countries, otherwise known as “states,” each having its own identity, its own laws.
Yesterday, the state of Oklahoma passed a bill making abortions within the state a felony. The only thing stopping the bill from becoming law is the signature of Republican, Gov. Mary Fallin. The patently unconstitutional bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives with a vote of 59-to-9 last month. On Thursday, the state’s senate passed it with a vote of 33-to-12. The thinking among the legislators must have been that the U.S. Constitution does not apply to the country of Oklahoma.
In Alabama, despite a ruling by a federal judge in Mobile making same-sex marriage legal, and in the face of a United States Supreme Court ruling last year making its legality the law of the land, Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, instructed probate judges throughout Alabama to ignore those higher courts and to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex couples. The thinking there must be that the U.S. Constitution does not apply to the country of Alabama.
And then there is Texas! A state that has threatened for years to pull itself away from the “Union” and officially become the sovereign nation it has always felt itself to be.
Throughout our “nation,” state laws are being passed making it a crime for transgenders using the wrong bathroom; voters are being prevented from exercising their constitutional right to cast a ballot; women are being restricted from seeking medical procedures constitutionally guaranteed and the poor are being denied free healthcare by states that reject the federal government’s largesse.
It has been 155 years since the Civil War tested the concept of whether separate states could exist as one nation, under one supreme law. As Lincoln observed at Gettysburg, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.”
When states act as independent contractors and fail to respect, and obey, the constitution that knits them together as one country, the whole concept of one nation falls apart.
There has always been a tug of war between states and the federal government; between federal laws and states’ rights. But the concept of one nation “under god” has not been undermined, for quite some time, as it is today.
So much for that grand concept of “E Pluribus Unum” … the idea of a nation of very different kinds of people united by a common passion for freedom, equal rights and democracy.
Today, some have actually questioned whether a Trump presidency could spark another civil war, likening the billionaire to Jefferson Davis more than the fascist, Benito Mussolini. There certainly are enough muskets out there!
Breaking News – Gov. Fallin has vetoed the bill making abortions a felony within Oklahoma. Said Fallin, “The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered ‘necessary to preserve the life of the mother.'”
Photo | bluerepublican.org
It would not upset me if the south seceded. They clearly think differently than the rest of this country, if not the world. Would love to see how they would exist when the hurricanes and tornados hit them, as they do each and every year. They should thank their lucky stars that they are part of the USA, because independently, they would fall apart like a wet noodle. I agree that with a Drumpf presidency, the thinking by these backward thinking backwoods hicks running these states, that they may actually think that this is the wave of the future for America. I say let them secede and then watch them fall apart with their terrible education system, high poverty population and welfare state mentality.
These Republican-controlled states are beyond ridiculous! WTF is happening to this country?
If you actually believe a clump of cells is a human being with rights guaranteed by the Constitution, then it is perfectly logical to make the “killing” of those cells a crime. Problem is not everyone believes that! Theologians over the centuries haven’t been able to determine when those cells are invested with a “soul.”
Well, the American Taliban has been able to answer that profound question!
I guess we should thank god for a little sanity. Still a crazy state!
Yep, still a little cray cray … now the state is set on impeaching Obama over his bathroom bill directive.