I have been spending a lot of time thinking about where we are as a society and I have come to the conclusion that the last 25 years or so has been all about the staus quo hanging onto the rules that made them the staus quo. The status quo being the people who designed the system that gave them all of the power. In this country that is the white man.

The womens movement of the 1970’s gave rise to the idea that women’s needs are different, and completely separate, from men. Career advancement, compensation, and safety are all issues men deal with but are so very different for women. Because of the role of women in society as defined by the status quo, success was defined by the obstacle and not the outcome. Roe v Wade was decided in 1973. The decision not only gave women more freedon to seek an abortion, it instilled in the subsequent generations, a sense of self determination that pushed the boundaries of all freedom. If a woman is the sole arbiter of her body, then she becomes the sole arbiter of her life, and her life path. If the status quo is hold onto the power they granted themselves, woman must lose control of that particular bodily function. It must be left to men to decide when a woman shall procreate and therefore be responsible the life they created. Her life again becomes about the obstacle and not the outcome.

A similar tactic is being used to deny the power of the marginalized people. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s was about equality and the path to equality was going to found in the voting booth. Elect leaders who will pass laws that will level the playing field. Gerrymandering is the antidote to the power of the Civil Rights Act. The status quo can elect politicians who will pass laws to undermine the gains made in the 60’s. Social programs that benefit lower wage earners, public schools that provide a strong foundation for growth and success, access to healthy, affordable food, and subsidized and safe public housing are all programs that must be gutted and rendered useless to those who need them the most. If poor children of color are to be deterred from achieveing some semblence of equality, it must start at the grade school level. All the while denying them the basic right of healthy food and safe shelter creates an even better chance that the staus quo retains power. Who can contemplate an over throw of society if your belly is empty and your mind unexpanded.

I wonder how firmly the staus quo would stand on the right to own whatever gun one chooses if masses of people of color started buying guns legally. As it stands, nearly 50% of gun owners are white men, 24% are men of color, 22% are white women. I doubt the status quo would be the staunch defenders of the 2nd Amendment if those numbers were reversed.

The 1980’s marked the insurgence of the angry white. And our society moved toward a more conservative disposition. And forty years later, we have found ourselves on runaway train where there are no brakes to pump and the engineer has closed his eyes to whatever horror is waiting around the bend. Even our “woke” leaders have shut themselves off from where the answers lie. They sit in the echo chambers of their own kind and think they know the way out. Holding their eyes open, hoping to be seen as awoken. And all they are doing is playing a mindless game of musical chairs. In the end, only one will be left standing. Lets hope they are truly awake.