Last month I celebrated my 75th birthday. And I have to say it’s been a difficult one. I’ve been wondering why this birthday has been so much harder than all my others. Perhaps it has something to do with my oldest brother saying this birthday marks the beginning of my final quarter on the planet. Ouch!

There certainly is the physical aspect of reaching 75. I’m very fortunate to have avoided serious illness so far. But I do notice that my fast walk at the park just isn’t so fast. And it takes me longer to get up a flight of stairs and my knees don’t much like coming back down. Ok, at 75 things are wearing out, and that’s to be expected. But what else has made this birthday so difficult?

Maybe it’s the current state of our nation and where we’re headed in the future. When I think of all the events and life altering changes that have taken place during my lifetime — Nixon getting the can, Roe v. Wade, civil rights movement, gay rights movement, marriage equality, the first Black president and the first female and Black vice president — and then think about how much we’ve lost in recent years and how much more we’ll lose in the years ahead, yes, I definitely feel my age.

I was 25 when Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, giving women and their doctors the right to make those critical decisions regarding their health and their lives without government interference. And now Roe is gone, and we are left with an unsustainable patchwork of laws across individual states that are forcing woman to make impossible choices regarding their reproductive care. Some of those states are making healthcare providers criminally liable for performing an abortion even when the health or life of the patient is in jeopardy. 

After 50 years of Roe, I find it crushing that, just like that, it’s gone.

Our current Supreme Court majority seems to believe that their religion-infused moral beliefs are the correct way to decide what is constitutional or what is not. But this is not a Christian nation and never has been. People of other religions who believe life begins at birth, not at conception, are left with their religious rights under attack. And that is unconstitutional.

When Barack Obama was first elected president, it was such a supremely exhilarating moment. A Black person had finally ascended to the highest office in the land. The talk then was that racism had been vanquished and though some small part of it was, we knew that racism wouldn’t die with that accomplishment. On the contrary, the backlash to Obama’s success only served to bring out the worst in those factions still unwilling to see Black Americans as equal citizens to whites in this country. Two terms of Obama took us directly to the age of Trump with its hate-filled rhetoric and policies toward immigrants and other non-white, non-Christian groups, its disinformation, lies and corruption. 

Luckily for us we managed to keep Trump from a second term, but he and his hatred and violence are still very much present. The man is running again for president, heaven help us. And this is pushing other Republicans to portray themselves as worse-than-Trump to run against him. 

One of those Republicans is Ron DeSantis, autocrat and Florida governor, who has passed laws that limit what can and cannot be taught in classrooms. These laws restrict the teaching of Black history and its lasting negative effects in this country. These laws also dictate which courses can be taught, the banning of books from schools, the spread of disinformation regarding health protections, and also limit the rights and protections of LGBTQ+ students and adults. 

We had come so far in the acceptance of gay and trans people. It is just heartbreaking to watch all the progress we’ve made simply be destroyed like this. Other states are copying Florida to pass similar laws and I ask, where will this lead? Hate and violence, that’s where.

This month marks the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, that infamous day in 1965 when a group of nearly 600 civil rights activists attempted a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demonstrate for voting rights. They were attacked and brutally beaten by members of state and local police. In response, President Lyndon Johnson, signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1965 that federally protected the right of all citizens to register and to vote, something Blacks in the South had been denied for many long years. It was a long overdue, historic accomplishment.

But in 2013, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority stripped the Act of much of its power to protect those long sought voting rights. The result has allowed many states to pass laws that now make it much harder again for people to vote.

One huge step forward only to take two steps back.

As I consider all these backward actions, I wonder what will happen as I proceed into my final quarter. Will we see more right wing Republican attacks on LGBTQ+ people like that of Michael Knowles, (with some 900,000 Twitter followers) who told the attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” Terrifying to hear a speaker at one of the most important Republican events of the year make such extremist threats.

But maybe the extremism of the Republican Party is turning some of its supporters away. CPAC itself was rather poorly attended this year. Doesn’t that mean things might be changing? And a 2022 Gallop poll showed that 55% of Americans consider themselves pro-choice. I think I know how that 55% of voters will cast their votes come 2024.

I want to believe that people will vote the extremists out of office. That is, if their right to vote is not undermined, and then they will vote for those leaders who will defend our democracy and the rights of all Americans. It could happen.

Karen Gardner, of Haydenville, can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.]]>