Ayn Rand has a book titled Atlas Shrugged. I haven't gotten around to reading it, but when I asked my mother what the title meant, she said: "Atlas holds the world on his shoulders, and at the most pivotal moment, when everyone is depending on him for help, he shrugs."
Say what you will about Ayn Rand, but that's beautiful.
Non sequiturs aside, today I took a break from re-reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians (I've read four books in two days someone stop me) to browse the internet, and I discovered that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.
Days like this I wonder why I bother leaving Camp Half-Blood at all.
I suppose it's ironic that our country has an 8.6% inflation rate, a thirty trillion dollar national debt, supply chain and labor shortages in every industry imaginable, a gun control issue (that nobody seems willing to tackle), climate change knocking on our doorstep, and -- oh yeah -- a global pandemic, yet we decide to spend all our time and money prosecuting women for having bodily autonomy. It is truly a pleasure to pay taxes to support such an honorable cause.
And yes, I have not yet obtained a degree from Harvard Law, but I just have questions -- because Roe v. Wade wasn't the only Supreme Court case that decriminalized abortion. There were eight landmark cases post-Roe that legalized (A) getting abortions without parental consent, (B) getting abortions without spousal permission, (C) getting abortions as a minor, and more. Yet SCOTUS can overturn fifty years of precedent with the flick of a pen, citing a misconstrued argument that "this isn't what Thomas Jefferson would have wanted"? Considering that Jefferson raped and impregnated slaves, I'm sure he would've liked the option of abortion had it existed in the 1800s. And if not? Well, that's the beauty of societal progress, isn't it? We don't have to listen to the opinions of men who have been dead for two hundred years!
And now, 23 states are projected to enact serious abortion restrictions (or altogether bans). All while 61% of Americans believe that abortion should be legalized/decriminalized. Maybe I should publish this blogpost on July 4th because this situation is so undemocratic the irony would just leap off the page...
But you see, I mentioned I've been re-reading all my Percy Jackson books. And I think Rand got a few things wrong-- for one, it's not Atlas holding up the world, it's women. And for another, we would never shrug, because we're not Titans, but goddesses. Sisters of Artemis, armed with silver arrows, sharp tongues, and perfect aim. My heart breaks for the women who are/will be affected by this. Let us mourn, grieve, get angry, get loud, then get ready. May the power of the unnamed goddesses flow through us as we fight the war yet to come.
Because it doesn't take Athena to know that women are stronger than this.
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