A Personal Reflection: SCOTUS 6/24 Decision

June 29, 2022July 2, 2022 / EYHCS

I remember leading into June my comment in a local connect meeting, “June is going to be a jam packed month”, I was right. There has been so much happening this month between celebrating Pride, remembering, and honoring the journey of Juneteenth, including Our Conversation with the Grandmother of Juneteenth on June 14th, and the list grew.

As I continue synthesizing this month’s contents, I must pause. I wear many hats, as I write I write with my intersectionality personal hat. While I mentioned initiatives completed under my professional hat, the opinions and statements herein, are mine and mine alone.

I pause because, I had intended to write a different post, but circumstances compel me to write this one, for this moment. You see, I love to write. I find writing very therapeutic and revealing. Through writing, I often lift the veil on lingering thoughts I have pushed to the side for one reason or another. This brings me to one of those lingering thoughts.

As I began my ascension below The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, my first of several stops on my scheduled excursion in New York City this past Friday, the news from SCOTUS broke. 196 steps to the top of the Pedestal my travel champion spoke somberly, “It’s Official. The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.” My heart sunk as a Native Texan, as an American, as a woman, and as a human who cares for others. Not because I support abortions. I don’t for many personal reasons, including my religious beliefs, but those are my reasons and mine alone. My beliefs should never usurp the beliefs of others on matters affecting their health and/or life. On Friday, June 24th SCOTUS knowingly did just that in more than a 3rd of the country due to the “trigger laws” in effect.

As I reached the marker for 67 steps to go, I lamented at the sheer irony of our current climate in America with shrinking liberties in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Standing beneath Lady Liberty, I was not surprised, but still, I felt just a little gutted. Lady Liberty was a gift and a promise. A promise codified in our Constitution at a time when my intersectionality would have deemed me “not a person” and “without rights”. A promise through our preparation to host Dr. Opal Lee was solidified by why Juneteenth is so important in the history of America. On a personal level, I had struggled with the holiday until Dr. Lee spoke on the effects the movement created for the enslaved people in Texas. A reminder of the past, but more importantly, a hope for the future and “a celebration of liberation with the freedom to live, to marry, to have and keep our children from being sold, to travel, and so much more”, Dr. Opal Lee. A promise Justice Thomas threatens with his concurring opinion. The match has been lit, it is my hope we the Republic put out the fire in November before we find The Handmaid’s Tale a reality. Because, “I have to tell you, NONE of us are FREE until all of us are FREE”, Dr. Opal Lee.

26 steps to the top, “I got this!”, I said to myself as I paused before making the final climb! With the spirit of my ancestors, I reached the top! I felt great for many reasons, but one of them was out of all the people visiting Lady Liberty we were the only two people in the stairwell, opting to bypass the elevator. Due to an illness, I could not have done this a year ago. Looking back, I am not sure I could have even made it to the elevator.

Many believe we cannot surmount the conflicting climate seeping into our global affairs.

I disagree. I am proof positive. That is a lie!

We have fought tyranny before and won! And so, I was this year old when I learned my company in the face of these restrictive measures over women’s health has expanded our health benefits to provide for travel expenses in states where a woman’s informed choice is no longer a woman’s choice. We’re not perfect, no company is, but we are striving to make life work better for people. Moves of this nature are one more step in the right direction! #InItTogether #BetterTogether

©EYHCS AND THE LATEST WORD, 2022. UNAUTHORIZED USE AND/OR DUPLICATION OF THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS, PAPERS, AND OTHER ORIGINAL WORKS OF ART WITHOUT EXPRESS AND WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR AND/OR OWNER IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. EXCERPTS, LINKS, EXCLUDING IMAGES WITHIN THIS POST UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED MAY BE USED, PROVIDED THAT FULL AND CLEAR CREDIT IS GIVEN TO EYHCS AND THE LATEST WORD WHERE APPROPRIATE

Day 172: I Wish

June 21, 2018June 18, 2018 / EYHCS

Moment of truth:

There are some things I wish I didn’t know.

I wish I didn’t know, what pain felt like.

I wish I didn’t know, feelings changed.

I wish I didn’t know, where, healing occurs.

I wish I didn’t know, why, Judas betrayed Jesus.

I wish I didn’t know, when recovery started.

I wish I didn’t know, the truth, I have experienced.

I wish I didn’t know, so many things I now know.

I wish, became I did, because I didn’t meant I wouldn’t, and there is no other outcome, worthy of what I have.

No regret, the checkbox can now be marked received.

I wish is the child on the inside.

I am grateful is the woman holding her close.

Together we are whole.

Together we are bold.

With God we do not fold.

“Day 172: I Wish” (text) by EYHCS published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

©EYHCS AND THE LATEST WORD, 2018. UNAUTHORIZED USE AND/OR DUPLICATION OF THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS, PAPERS, AND OTHER ORIGINAL WORKS OF ART WITHOUT EXPRESS AND WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR AND/OR OWNER IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. EXCERPTS, LINKS, AND IMAGES WITHIN POSTS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED MAY BE USED, PROVIDED THAT FULL AND CLEAR CREDIT IS GIVEN TO EYHCS AND 15 WORDS OR LESS WITH APPROPRIATE AND SPECIFIC DIRECTION TO THE ORIGINAL CONTENT.

Day 320: Life

November 16, 2017 / EYHCS

How can you call it your life, if you rarely take ownership of anything happening in it?

“Day 320: Life” (text) by EYHCS published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

©EYHCS AND THE LATEST WORD, 2017. UNAUTHORIZED USE AND/OR DUPLICATION OF THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS, PAPERS, AND OTHER ORIGINAL WORKS OF ART WITHOUT EXPRESS AND WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR AND/OR OWNER IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. EXCERPTS, LINKS, AND IMAGES WITHIN POSTS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED MAY BE USED, PROVIDED THAT FULL AND CLEAR CREDIT IS GIVEN TO EYHCS AND 15 WORDS OR LESS WITH APPROPRIATE AND SPECIFIC DIRECTION TO THE ORIGINAL CONTENT.

Day 317: Inception

November 13, 2017November 8, 2017 / EYHCS

The doors closed.
The windows locked.
The shutters fell.
The lights went out.

No one knew what it was all about.
Yet, whispers slowly became shouts.

The choice still wavering.
The memory fading.
She looked away.

She could no longer hold off a decision.
As we watched the sun arisen.

The “Day 317: Inception” (text) by EYHCS published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

©EYHCS AND THE LATEST WORD, 2017. UNAUTHORIZED USE AND/OR DUPLICATION OF THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS, PAPERS, AND OTHER ORIGINAL WORKS OF ART WITHOUT EXPRESS AND WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR AND/OR OWNER IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. EXCERPTS, LINKS, AND IMAGES WITHIN POSTS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED MAY BE USED, PROVIDED THAT FULL AND CLEAR CREDIT IS GIVEN TO EYHCS AND 15 WORDS OR LESS WITH APPROPRIATE AND SPECIFIC DIRECTION TO THE ORIGINAL CONTENT.

Day 311: Escaping Mental Captivity

November 7, 2017December 31, 2017 / EYHCS

Mindful

The other day I was venting on Facebook about a woman I encountered during lunch. Her newfound knowledge had sparked a flame she could not contain as the fruits continually fell from the tree. And, similarly to a rabbit in a carrot field, she consumed more than she could fully digest.

As I ranted on silently in my head and physically on my phone, she appeared unaffected by my designed reclusiveness. Jabbering on she recounts the rich history of our ancestry as if the shaman had just spoken to the little children amongst the cold night and bristling fire of our journey from kings and queens to slaves and cattle and back to mental kings and queens.

Reminiscent of Yoda holding court as Luke Skywalker describes the force. I sit willing myself to engage while rapidly wanting to disengage.

Respectfully conscious of another’s presence I crafted a mental door to escape the forming thoughts flowing forth as they sought to reach her awakening thought. Through a vehicle that has some of us still chained to the machine.

She continues and the more broken thought meets new thought, the more I poetically regurgitate the inner me forcibly holding her in. She’s the cynic I overcome each day. The one that knows the rivers and the valleys and the depths of salvation. She lives, but she rarely drives.

As I drift back to the woman beside me, I call forth the optimistic protagonist. There, yes, there… I rejoin the moment, present once again. She has once again sensed the freshness of the thought. It lacks roots. It’s filled with supplication and limited validation, but the seed has sprouted.

Yet, she still sees the world as the puppeteer and herself as the puppet. External hands directing her actions all the while absolving her of any accountability or responsibility. The moment of eclipse fighting to hold on. Awakening, but her eyelids refuse to open.