What We Owe Our Kids (Part 4)

Or, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

It has taken me nearly a month now to get myself composed enough to even begin writing this. I thought that maybe I could take a break from talking about what we have taken away from our children. That I could focus on other matters. That I could write about how incredible it is that, in a time of such deep political polarization, our leaders came together and began adapting our gun laws to reflect the current state of affairs.

Then the Supreme Court of the United States got back on their bullshit.

Or maybe they have never been off it.

The point is that we have watched as one terrible and contradictory decision after another has been made. Decisions that do not reflect the desires and will of the majority and yet will have a direct impact on all of us.

They made a decision regarding Miranda Rights. You are no longer allowed to sue the cops if they arrest you, do not read you your rights, and then use that evidence against you. On the surface, this looks fine. But it is not far-fetched to believe that this will be taken as a license to simply arrest people and hold them on dubious grounds. Since now there is not really anything you can do about it. Mark my words. It is going to happen. Chances are the first major news break regarding this matter will have to do with someone accused of helping a pregnant person procure an abortion.

They changed the framework for how states can control guns by striking down a New York law that restricted open carry to those who had a justifiable reason for carrying a gun around. While the President did sign a piece of gun legislation into law, watch how hard it will be to implement and enforce. This new framework will be used, undoubtedly, by a highly pro-gun jurisdiction to block the enforcement of a “red flag law”.

They ruled in favor of a high school football coach who would pray after each game on the 50-yard line. A practice that went from being just him to a few team members to whole crowds. It grew so large that players felt they had to participate for fear that they would not get as much play time if they refused. They also ruled that state funds can be used in blatantly religious institutions even if they do not teach to the state-required standards.

They overturned Roe v Wade, taking away a woman’s right to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy and leaving that decision, rather, in the hands of the state legislature. This is by far the scariest decision with the most disturbing implications. The grounds for the decision are equally disturbing as the decision itself.

None of these decisions were made in a straightforward, case-by-case manner. Rather, they went so far in each of these cases to change the way in which the constitution is to be interpreted. They changed precedent and put other rights potentially in peril.

One could praise any of these decisions. You can find positives in each and every one depending on your position on the case and your individual political ideology. You can easily see the negatives as well. But if you are not taking the impact this is going to have on our nation’s children into consideration, you are merely succumbing to your own selfishness.

We owe our children a better, freer world. We owe our children the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Instead, we have relegated those rights only to those who have already attained them and who have not been born yet. Those in the middle have nothing.

In fact, we have taken those rights away from them in a way. We have created a scenario where our kids are free to die at the hands of unhinged gunmen. We have created a world where our kids are free to die of ectopic pregnancies or face criminal prosecution. We have created a world where our little girls can be taken advantage of and held responsible for their aggressors' actions.

No. We have not given our children a better and freer world.

And it all just seems to be getting nastier and nastier.

What started as concern on the left that Republicans would soon be coming after gay marriage, contraception, and even the legality of homosexuality in the broadest sense imaginable, has proven true. It is only a matter of time.

Case in point.

On Saturday, Ted Cruz posted a clip on his YouTube channel in which he stated, “Obergefell, like Roe v. Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history…” In case you have forgotten, this is the same line of reasoning that was used by Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion overturning Roe.

We owe our kids a better world than this.

At this point, I have lamented enough, so I propose to you a question: Do you want a better world for your kids than the one you grew up in or not? If you answer that you do, follow me over the next few days as I lay out a framework for us that can make that better world possible.