The Supreme Court

I never thought about the high court much. I know that I benefited from many of its ruling. Being a child of the 1960s(born 1955) there was the Civil Rights Movement, and the court's rulings for the Movement that rightfully gave equal rights, justice and dignity to black Americans, like myself. These basic human rights were earned through patriotism, much blood, sweat, and many tears of millions of many people. However, civil rights did not come from the goodness and fairness of the court. These rights were forced on the Court by the of the power of the Movement.

The court has proven to be, over its many years, a place of little political courage. Most Supreme Court rulings have been to appease the majority, not equality for the minority. Of course from the time of the Court's inception many of it's Justices held the same superior views as the majority. Views that these same justices ruled into law.

Over the years, The Supreme Court, to say the least, has made many controversial rulings. And some not so good rulings. The Supreme of late have been making some rulings, to my thinking anyway, that don't jive with the makeup of a right leaning court. To my most pleasant surprise.

The recent ruling to end the executions of persons that committed capital crimes before the age of 18. This ruling commuted the sentences of hundreds of prisoners from death to life in prison. The Court's decision not execute the mentally ill, the decision to grant habeas corpus to detainees at Gitmo and, the most recent ruling not to make child rape a capital offense.

The rape of child is horrible. The pervert might spare the child's life, if he or she knows not killing the child will also spare his or her sick life. Also since most cowards that rape kids are usually related to their victims, child victims will have a heavy load on their shoulders, knowing that their testimony might mean the death penalty for the sorry rapist.

Though most of these rulings were five to four decisions, in the high court made of nine, five is the majority. As we blacks have been brow beaten with forever, MAJORITY RULES. Hopefully the next POTUS will appoint Justices with political and moral courage. Justice that are NOT in the majority.

Hollywood And Courage

You have to give credit to people in Hollywood who speak out against the President, and The Iraq War. These celebrities are really courageous. They stand for their convictions at the risk of financial loss, and damage to their image.You have to admire people like that, who put their principals above money, popularity, and all the time knowing they will be demonized for speaking out.

Some say they don't know what's going on, and that they should just be entertainers and leave policy matters to politicians. I say most of them were against this stupid war from day one. And that in itself shows us that the celebrities that spoke out against invading Iraq then were more in the loop than the politicians, or the pundits that got us into the mess we now have in Iraq. If the some people in Washington had listened to Hollywood, then maybe the decent policy maker who let G.W. Bush persuade them to sign on to his gung ho rush to war would have their reputations in tact, and have the credibility they need today to speak out against Bush on his Iraq policy.

Some celebrities who had the audacity to voice opinions that were anti Bush did suffer in their careers (Dixie Chicks and others). Yet they stuck to their guns, took the blows, and when all was said and done, they were proved correct. They had more courage than a lot of Congress people and media people could only have wished for. I also think most of the media should share the blame for cheering Bush on in the lead up to the war.

The media didn't do it's job and investigate the truth of Bush's claims about the threat Saddam supposedly posed to America. The media just repeated Bush's lies. It surly would not taken that much investigating on the part of the media to uncover the realty of Bush's claims. Night Ridder was the only media outlet that took the small amount of time and effort needed to look into what Bush was saying, and report the facts. Night Ridder conclusion: Iraq had no W.M.Ds. Very few media outlets in this country did what the outspoken celebrities and Night Ridder newspaper did: Question the administration. No one should be demonized for speaking out. If anything they should be applauded. The so called mainstream media would not even conceive of having anyone on their t.v. shows that dared to say Bush was wrong. The only t.v. media that let dissenters on air was CSPAN.

With all that was going against them at the time, including the news media, some celebrities still stood up and spoke out. They showed they are true patriots, regardless of what personal pitfalls would, and did come their way. Courage under pressure. That is a human trait anyone should be proud to have.