Often when crises are popping up all over the media I ask myself, “What will still be news in 10 years.”
This supreme court term makes that cut because it strikes at so many fundamental human rights, civil rights and business regulation.
I feel uncomfortable, like many liberals writing about my own spiritual practices and views but I want to talk about how it’s working for me right now. The anxiety caused by these court setbacks makes it tempting to jump into the protests and support action through the ads I’m seeing most, the emails and the news sources I’m connected to. And I do support resisting these court rulings with action.
But these rulings affect so many areas of freedom, what is the most effective thing to do?
That’s hard for me to know. There were rulings we’re hearing and some of those are getting more coverage than others. And the court heard altogether 66 cases! I fear that if only the ones we’re hearing most about get all the support we won’t do the deepest work that needs to be done.
I’ve been given a lot of opportunities to join resistance to the abortion decision and I have my views on abortion rights, which I’ve written about here
I feel the right to have an abortion, while necessary, has been a meager substitute for rights to medical care, child care, family leave, housing, etc, that make having a child a welcome and safer part of adult life.
To fight only for abortion rights does not address those issues or the numerous other threats to human rights posed by this court. So…
I need my spiritual practices in order to keep from getting swept up into fighting for my least favorable solution while recognizing what is the most immediate need.
My spiritiual practices keep me centered, keep me focused on researching possibilities and using my limited energy wisely.
The other rulings by the court include findings against the EPA, in favor of looser gun laws, supporting religion in education, and weakening accountability for police who violate civil rights. You can investigate all 66 of the court’s 2021-22022 hearings here:
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021
I became agitated and scattered trying to decide which human right was the most important for me to get involved with. That began to look like a lot of reading and learning. Good information, not opinion, is very hard to find. When not looking for opinion all of them seem to be equally important!
Again, my spiritual practices fortify me in discernment of what is the most effective use of my efforts, money, energy, concentration, clarity of thought and ability to investigate. So a couple days working on this article, meditating a little more and participating in zoom meetings with my sangha brought my thoughts to this:
This shouldn’t be this hard for a normal person. Something is not working right. And then I remembered an article I read sometime back. And that memory is just barely on the edge of my thoughts and I can’t recall is but essentially courts in every other democracy don’t work the way the US Supreme Court does. And significantly, these are democracies that are younger than ours and have learned how to design constitutions with more modern views of human rights written into them and into the design of the court systems. So basically instead of narrowly deciding what our “rights” are then forcing any expansion of them (i.e. amendments to give slaves, women etc. equal rights more than expressed) they begin with a definition of human rights more like the UN declaration of human rights, then they argue about whether the government is doing everything it should to protect them. Here are a few articles I’ve read talking about that very thing:
Supreme Court drama and alternatives:
Perhaps participating in the work of fundamentally changing the Supreme Court is more beneficial than supporting one issue at a time. Perhaps constitutional change is more beneficial. Perhaps legislative change is most beneficial. Maybe a cultural change is beneficial. Maybe local protections of rights?
Maybe I just gave myself more questions, but I certainly gave myself different questions. And these questions don’t lead me to the sense of despair about being somehow incapable of doing what seemed to be the only choices: pick the easiest to get involved with, do nothing, or do everything. What I feel sure about is that if I keep using my practices of discernment I’ll get closer and closer to my truth.
I need my spiritual practices to withstand being whipped up by strong personalities or pervasive media efforts to join their causes before I discern where I want my energy directed. Of course, their work is important, but I want to know if it’s the best work for me. And also if I can keep a level of energy to distribute my work among various causes.
Guided Meditation for Discernment: Join us here.
Granted, all practices of discernment don’t have to be considered spiritual, but I think they do need to be considered.
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