Things I Was Pleased To See

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, Holidays, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Today for a change of pace, I thought I’d share with you a few things I was pleased to see in the news recently.  No, don’t worry … I’m not going soft, but sometimes it is nice to partly balance the negative with the positive.  I’ll be back with more snark later today, no doubt.

🏳️‍🌈Yesterday, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law with more than 2,000 people on hand to cheer!  While some claim the law does not go far enough, and I would agree, it is nonetheless a huge step in the right direction.  The law protects both same-sex marriages and inter-racial marriages, requiring the federal government and states to recognize legally performed marriages in other states. It also repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 bill that recognized marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”

It is likely this bill would still be languishing somewhere in the Senate, but a sense of urgency prevailed when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, of all people, indicated that the Court should revisit the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges ruling that guarantees a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Of late, the Court has not shown itself to be on the side of human rights.  The Respect for Marriage Act even had a bit of support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate, which I find very encouraging.  It’s time we all learn to just accept each other for who we are without trying to run the lives of others for them.

In Oregon, the outgoing Governor Kate Brown took a step that I fully applaud.  She announced that she will commute the sentences of all 17 individuals on Oregon’s death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  As an opponent of the death penalty, I am beyond pleased to hear this.  Says Governor Brown …

“I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people — even if a terrible crime placed them in prison. This is a value that many Oregonians share.”

She also directed the Department of Corrections to dismantle the state’s death chamber.

According to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), civil rights giant and former U.S. Representative John Lewis, who spent decades fighting for racial justice, will be honored with a postage-stamp next year!  I cannot think of a single person more worthy of this honour.  The USPS said the stamp “celebrates the life and legacy” of the leader from Georgia, who risked his life protesting against segregation and other injustices in the violent Jim Crow-era South.

“Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastly defending and building on key civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s. Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call ‘good trouble.'”

And lastly, a bit of humour out of Florida.

In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Colonel Lou Caputo, left, costumed as the Grinch, and Deputy Andrew Leird, right, wave at a school bus rolling on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, in Marathon, Fla. When drivers are pulled over for slightly speeding through a school zone, Caputo offers them the choice between an onion or a traffic citation. It’s a holiday tradition in the Keys that Caputo began 20 years ago to educate drivers that Keys schools remain in session through Dec. 16.

28 thoughts on “Things I Was Pleased To See”

  2. Biden and the Dems are busy getting whatever they can, done quick before the do nothing but investigate bullshit, carnival congress comes in January. I was hoping that they’d codify Roe as urgently as the marriage rights. And talk about hypocrite, freaking Unsupreme Unjustice, black, Thomas married to a WHITE cohort of tRump’s as part of the sedition, has decided he’s going to put a stop to interracial marriage. Like, WT actual F??? Shaking my head daily. 🙂 ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, there’s a very small window of time to get things done, and the holidays don’t help. I look for the next two years to be nothing but conflict and rhetoric. You’re right … Clarence Thomas is a piece of work, a hypocrite. He should have been removed from the bench long ago, at the very least should recuse himself from cases pertaining to the insurrection on January 6th, but … the rules seem to have been thrown out the window these days. ❤

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  3. Pingback: Are some people truly evil? | Another Spectrum

  7. Pingback: Things I Was Pleased To See | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

    • Yes, good news seems to be rather scarce these days, doesn’t it? The day is over, and I’m looking forward to enjoying a night of sleep sometime soon! Tomorrow we are going out to buy a Christmas tree, so that should be either fun or exhausting … or both! xx

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  10. I agree. At least here in Aotearoa New Zealand we don’t t have the death penalty, and there’s only ever been one life sentence without parole ever handed out. That was for the Christchurch mosque shootings, and even for that atrocity I wonder about the justification of life without the possibility of parole and being kept in ISOLATION. Not only from other prisoners but isolated from any news/information about the world outside the penall institution. If he had any sanity before, the isolation will destroy whatever might be left.

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    • You make some valid points, Barry. I have mixed thoughts on life without parole, for I do think that there are people for whom evil is part of who they are, and that they shouldn’t be released back into society to murder again. But, as you and rawgod both say, that takes away the hope, the incentive to try to become better people.

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      • Having a right to parole doesn’t guarantee that it will be granted. It must be earned. Here, unless there are exceptional circumstances, the usual non-parole period for murder is 10 years, although the court can set a longer period. However some convicted murderers spend considerably longer behind bars than their minimum non-parole term as they can’t persuade the porole board that they are safe to rejoin society.

        I am yet to e persuaded that anyone is so totally evil that it’s impossible for them to change their behaviour. However I will acknowledge that often times society is unwilling to provide the resources needed to achieve that. The more heinous the crime, the less willing is society prepared to make the effort. Instead, society would rather lock them up and throw away the key or resort to capital punishment, neither of which offers any opportunity for reform.

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        • Question for you: Would you consider Brenton Tarrant evil enough that he could not change? I think that I look at someone like the shooter in the Sandy Hook Elementary School case as somebody that simply does not deserve a second chance in society after killing 20 children and six teachers. Anybody who could commit crimes like the Christchurch mosque shootings or the Sandy Hook massacre has no conscience, and without a conscience, how can they ‘reform’? I do, however, see your point and to an extent I agree with it, but I think there are notable exceptions.

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  11. Pleased to hear capital punishment is being ended, but not pleased about the life without parole part. What reason does a person have to improve themselves if they know yhey are going to rot in jail. Where is the hope?
    While not everyone does, all people are capable of changing. Without a reason to change your prisons will all be filled with assholes who won’t hesitate to murder and rape their fellow prisoners. No, life without parole is more inhumane than killing them.

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    • I’m definitely glad they did away with capital punishment. I have mixed thoughts on life sentences with no hope for parole. I think there are some crime/criminals that do require the person be taken out of public circulation for the rest of his/her life. But, as you say, where is the incentive then to turn around?

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